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irreverentreader 's review for:
The Mouse and His Child
by Russell Hoban
This is a book that I will undoubtedly go back to in the future--because I think it's one that takes some time to digest. I wish I had read it at a different point in my year, when I wasn't so stressed and had the ability to focus.
Because this is a "children's" book that does require focus. I would put this in the same camp as Peter Pan and A Series of Unfortunate Events. This book is DARK. It does not shy away for a minute about the brutalities of life: loss, terror, death, slow decay, you name it. And yet, I think it speaks about these topics with a real earnestness that makes it meaningful for readers of all ages. Although parents may shy away from such books for their kids, these were the type of books I most connected to as a kid--they didn't try to hide the ugly parts of the world, you felt like you were observing life the way it was and learning something from it: resilience, determination, persistence.
I do think there were a few things that could have used a little spiffying up. As a few other reviewers said, the flow of the storytelling could have been polished, and the whole absurdist/existentialism taken down a notch or two, but yet it still worked--at least for me, as an adult. My only other complaint is that I wish we would have spent more time in the toy store at the beginning because that would have made the Elephant and Seal characters more interesting, had we gotten to know them better.
I love anthropomorphic tales, and I love all matters of grey characters, and this book has plenty of both. I look forward to my eventual return to this book and to see what nuances I pick up the second time around.
Because this is a "children's" book that does require focus. I would put this in the same camp as Peter Pan and A Series of Unfortunate Events. This book is DARK. It does not shy away for a minute about the brutalities of life: loss, terror, death, slow decay, you name it. And yet, I think it speaks about these topics with a real earnestness that makes it meaningful for readers of all ages. Although parents may shy away from such books for their kids, these were the type of books I most connected to as a kid--they didn't try to hide the ugly parts of the world, you felt like you were observing life the way it was and learning something from it: resilience, determination, persistence.
I do think there were a few things that could have used a little spiffying up. As a few other reviewers said, the flow of the storytelling could have been polished, and the whole absurdist/existentialism taken down a notch or two, but yet it still worked--at least for me, as an adult. My only other complaint is that I wish we would have spent more time in the toy store at the beginning because that would have made the Elephant and Seal characters more interesting, had we gotten to know them better.
I love anthropomorphic tales, and I love all matters of grey characters, and this book has plenty of both. I look forward to my eventual return to this book and to see what nuances I pick up the second time around.