This book was recommended to me by someone in my monthly library book club. We recently started a mailing list between us; and one of the first suggestions was nominating our favorite three books. It was interesting that the first three recommended were all British authors: Lawrence Durrell by me, then Philip Pullman and Margaret Atwood. This was sort of a no-brainer for me; I’m a certified anglophile, National Health card and all. I’m also a sucker for kid’s books. Well, that’s too broad a category; young teens might be a better fit. That’s an age group that I seem to have communicated with: I’ve raised a few batches as step-father. More to the point, I’ve read and enjoyed, “good” writers in this genre: I love Isabel Allende, “City of Beasts”, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series (I only dropped out after 4 or 5), and of course Joyce Carol Oates with “Small Avalanches … ..” amongst many others. Now does Anne Rice write for teens or adults?.?
Of course I also like simple pulp fiction – single plotline -- clear lines for good guys and bad guys – an unambiguous moral, introduced early in the story – redeeming value through either: gained knowledge, ethics, or social awareness. O.K., obviously I was not an English Lit major in college (I confess: it was physics, math, and computer science). I think it’s a reflection of the age we live in that “teen literature” should there really be such a thing, has healthy doses of physics and computer science; mathematics unfortunately has never really “caught on.” That’s a shame really because if physics is the sculpture (hard stuff) of the art world; then mathematics is the canvas-art of the scientist, and computer science is the constant pushing of the future upon us.
The book?.? The book is great of course – riveting action – characters you love and hate, scenes that are for the imagination only. I’ve ordered the second and third books in Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy from the library, “The Subtle Knife”, and “The Amber Spyglass”. One can only take so much of a “smart kid”, but I think I can handle two or three more books. Suspend your disbelief; allow the fantasy to take over your mind: believe in the story. These books work well as Books-On-Tape (in its many guises) because of its singular focus on simple plot and characterization. A good writer, and Pullman is good, keeps you primed for the next chapter, and it is thus one of those books that you can read in one sitting (flying to Paris) or on a cruise to Yokohama.
Of course I also like simple pulp fiction – single plotline -- clear lines for good guys and bad guys – an unambiguous moral, introduced early in the story – redeeming value through either: gained knowledge, ethics, or social awareness. O.K., obviously I was not an English Lit major in college (I confess: it was physics, math, and computer science). I think it’s a reflection of the age we live in that “teen literature” should there really be such a thing, has healthy doses of physics and computer science; mathematics unfortunately has never really “caught on.” That’s a shame really because if physics is the sculpture (hard stuff) of the art world; then mathematics is the canvas-art of the scientist, and computer science is the constant pushing of the future upon us.
The book?.? The book is great of course – riveting action – characters you love and hate, scenes that are for the imagination only. I’ve ordered the second and third books in Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy from the library, “The Subtle Knife”, and “The Amber Spyglass”. One can only take so much of a “smart kid”, but I think I can handle two or three more books. Suspend your disbelief; allow the fantasy to take over your mind: believe in the story. These books work well as Books-On-Tape (in its many guises) because of its singular focus on simple plot and characterization. A good writer, and Pullman is good, keeps you primed for the next chapter, and it is thus one of those books that you can read in one sitting (flying to Paris) or on a cruise to Yokohama.
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