Recent reads

A book that offers escape is a welcome treat every once in a while. I binge read Neil Gaiman's Stardust this week.  Loved it. Neil Gaiman sets the standard for contemporary fairy tale writing - not that I've read a lot of this genre, but some of the young adult books the kids have picked up and I've perused seem to take themselves too seriously. Gaiman's writing is playful and hits just the right key between emulating the language of fairy tales and natural dialogue. He brings his setting and characters alive.

Stardust is supposedly set sometime in the not distant past, Gaiman suggests the 1920s, but I did imagine the characters on the human side of Wall, the fictional town defined by a wall that leads to faerie land, to be more medieval. The humans are only allowed to cross the wall once a year to go to the faerie market for a day and a half. There they can buy all sorts of wonders.  Dunstan Thorne finds his heart's desire while he is there - the gift of a grateful lodger in his small cottage. This blessing that might be a curse is passed down through generations, so that when, nine months later, a basket with a baby boy is left at the wall with the name Tristan Thorne written on a slip of paper pinned to it, Dunstan accepts the baby as his son, and his son grows up to obtain his heart's desire, too. That's where the plot takes off - with Tristan heading off to the other side of the wall to find a fallen star to give to the girl he loves.

Of course, all sorts of fantastical adventures ensue. The star turns out to be in the from of a beautiful young girl, and she is being sought, not just by Tristan, but by other inhabitants of this world, including a witch in search of eternal youth gained by eating the star's heart, and ambitious princes who seek the star to gain their father's throne.  Other characters they meet along the way bring humor and wonder to the story as well.

It's a fun romp through a place that appeals to some inner yearning in our own hearts - is there some heart's desire to live in a world like this, full of magic and talking trees, where needs are elemental?  This is a fairy tale intended for grown-ups - although excising a couple scenes could put it back on the juvenile shelves, but is it juvenile to still enjoy reading it?  Good writing should transcend genre in its appeal to readers, which is why it is so fun to reread Charlotte's Web, our current read aloud, but a little more of a slog to get through Surprise Island, a Boxcar Children book, which is fine, but the dialogue is a bit flat, and the children so good.  They do have a generous grandfather who lets them live on an island for a summer, though, a realistic fantasy.  What is it about fairy tales and fantasy that captures our imagination?  Some readers may prefer mysteries or historical fiction or science fiction or thrillers - I'll read them all.  The world of the fantastic may be harder to create - perhaps Gaiman's trick is adding some earthy humor. Or his gift for dialogue and description.  Apparently Stardust was made into a movie, but I can't imagine it improving on the book.  The charm might become silly, and the characters flat.  I probably won't look it up.  But I did enjoy having something light and entertaining to read for a couple nights.