I am super late to the party on this book. I hadn’t heard of it until there was buzz around the movie (which opened yesterday). I wanted to get this read before the movie came out and before I got any spoilers.
I can see why it’s popular and has been for so long. It was originally published in 1962 and won a bunch of children’s literature awards.
I think I have mentioned this before, but I think the power of books is that you get to see the world from another point of view other than your own. It opens you up to views of yourself that maybe you hadn’t considered before. So I can’t help but wonder if I would have been changed by reading this book at a younger age. Even now, in my advanced years, I can relate to the main character Meg. She is a very intense young woman who carries the weight of responsibility heavily on her shoulders. I can see a lot of myself in her. One of the messages in the book is that Meg needs to harness the things that are her qualities – even the bad ones – to be successful in her quest. I feel like that lesson has taken me a long time to learn myself, what if I had heard it when I was a teenager? Anyway….no use ruminating about what could have been.
The thing that fascinated me most about this is the universality of the story. It’s similar to Shakespeare, or Tolstoy or any of the classics – when an author taps into basic human traits and truths – the story becomes timeless. This is your classic good vs. evil trope.
I didn’t feel that this book was out of date. Except for the talk about God – not that there is anything wrong with that – it feels like could have been written today.
I don’t want to spoil the plot for those who haven’t read it. It is just a good story that is well told.
If you haven’t read it and are thinking about it…..go! Get the book! Read it now.
I rated it 5/5 on Goodreads.
Married Book Nerds 