wardenred 's review for:

The Borrowers by Mary Norton

4.5

hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Stories never really end. They can go on and on and on. It's just that sometimes, at a certain point, one stops telling them.

I used to love this book as a kid. The last time I had read it must have been when I was eight or nine, which is... a scary number of years ago. Re-reading it now was a fun experience: apparently, I still remember a lot of the scenes by heart, while others felt so new. I legitimately thought something else happened in their place. Then again, as a kid I read this book in translation; perhaps because of that, some accents were placed differently.

As a kid, I naturally was more invested in Arietty and that call of adventure she constantly feels. Now, I found myself looking closer at her parents. For my child self, they were nearly background characters; now, I was amazed to realize how nuanced their characterization is. They're not exactly the people I'd want to hang out with, but their personalities and their relationships to each other and their daughter were so fun to follow. 

I also found myself really enjoying how the story was told, with the "story within a story" framing device, the semi-ambiguous ending, the way the boy who could be the main character of his own tale—someone who's moved overseas to discover a magic world under the floorboards of his new home—simply had a part to play in those not-quite-magic creatures' story. 

There were definitely some issues here that I overlooked as a kid; classism was the most notable. But it was still a very enjoyable read, even now, and the nostalgia might have made it even better. After all, revisiting the books you loved as a child is a lot like revisiting your own past.