A rewarding study by a first-rate arts writer.
Erudite extended essay about C.S. Lewis’s classic fantasy series, the meaning of reading in childhood and the author’s internal landscape.
Salon.com co-founder and staff writer Miller first entered Narnia some 40 years ago, when a second-grade teacher handed her a copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Raised in a large Catholic family in California, she found a new world inside that novel and its six companions; she imagined she must reach Narnia or die trying. Naturally, she outgrew that feeling, but could never erase the powerful impact that Lewis (1898–1963) had on her youthful imagination. Revisiting the books as an adult, she was horrified to discover that the Chronicles of Narnia contained Catholic doctrine disguised as storytelling. Still, she could not let go of her childhood favorite texts without at least trying to move beyond her skepticism about organized religion. Sorting through her conflicted reactions, Miller realized what she disliked about the Chronicles as an adult could not eclipse what she had loved and would always love about the stories. The author’s intellectual and emotional journeys come together nicely here. The chapters on Lewis’s texts will be rough going for those who haven’t read the Narnia books, but Miller’s vivid plot summaries, enhanced by her accomplished literary criticism, could possibly bring every member of her audience into the loop. Her intellectual biography of Lewis, doled out in fragments across the chapters, is less successful. Nonetheless, Miller’s insights about the Oxford don are sometimes stunning. She notes, for example, the temptation to call Lewis misanthropic, but adds, “he liked people well enough—as long as he believed they were a lot like him.” Other authors, Tolkien in particular, receive Miller’s scrutiny as well, but always in relation to Lewis and his imagined world.
A rewarding study by a first-rate arts writer.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-316-01763-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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