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A review by psilosiren
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
5.0
This story has always touched me in profound ways, and even as a small child would often leave me unsettled and uncomfortable. I've watched the Disney version of the movie, the 2003 movie, and Hook a number of times each and have always been fascinated with Peter Pan. However, this is the first time I've ever actually gotten around to reading the book.
It did not disappoint. The best way I can describe the potent quality of this book is that Barrie does an unbelievable job of portraying an innocent darkness onto all his characters. He even does this to himself in some of his narration toward the end. I think it is a fascinating perspective into the human condition, that we go about doing the things we do without thinking much about them or realizing what we are doing.
Peter especially is permanently out of reach to generations of people that fall in love with him, though they want to change the very thing it is about him that makes them love him. His timeless, savage childishness is what draws them to him, but he can't be kept, otherwise they'd lose what they love about him.
Hook was complex and fascinating in this book as well, not just a silly coward or stupid villain, but a person who is still seeking in his own way to do things the right way, and fixated on Peter in hatred probably for what he has lost within himself. Hook was just as heartbreakingly tragic as Peter and Wendy and Mrs. Darling and all the rest of them.
While I don't think all of Barrie's portrayals of children are completely accurate, he does very well capture the way adults think of childhood, which might be far more potent than the childhood itself.
The only jarring aspect to the novel was the not-so-subtle racism in talking about "The Redskins" and I'm going to hope that it was just an oversight of the time that Barrie lived in.
It did not disappoint. The best way I can describe the potent quality of this book is that Barrie does an unbelievable job of portraying an innocent darkness onto all his characters. He even does this to himself in some of his narration toward the end. I think it is a fascinating perspective into the human condition, that we go about doing the things we do without thinking much about them or realizing what we are doing.
Peter especially is permanently out of reach to generations of people that fall in love with him, though they want to change the very thing it is about him that makes them love him. His timeless, savage childishness is what draws them to him, but he can't be kept, otherwise they'd lose what they love about him.
Hook was complex and fascinating in this book as well, not just a silly coward or stupid villain, but a person who is still seeking in his own way to do things the right way, and fixated on Peter in hatred probably for what he has lost within himself. Hook was just as heartbreakingly tragic as Peter and Wendy and Mrs. Darling and all the rest of them.
While I don't think all of Barrie's portrayals of children are completely accurate, he does very well capture the way adults think of childhood, which might be far more potent than the childhood itself.
The only jarring aspect to the novel was the not-so-subtle racism in talking about "The Redskins" and I'm going to hope that it was just an oversight of the time that Barrie lived in.