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A review by alastaircraig
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
5.0
I thought I knew this story well enough - through Disney, through Spielberg (#ProudHookApologist right here), through watered-down picture books, through Arrested Development cutaway jokes - that the source material didn't seem all that necessary.
What a foolish grown-up I have been. The story comes a very distant second to the telling.
I did not expect the prose to be so wickedly self-aware and Wodehouse-level funny. I did not expect Captain Hook to be an empathetic case study in depression. I certainly did not expect to fall in love with Wendy's parents and their quirky domestic life. (Really, the biggest of the tale's many tragedies is that we have to follow the kids to Neverland and leave their delightful company.)
Most of all, I'm just floored by the final chapter. JM Barrie was far too honest about transience, adulthood and mortality to lie to children with a happily-ever-after. His beautiful closing words left me with a jumble of feelings as strange and lovely and bittersweet as anything I’ve read on the subject - for child or adult.
What a foolish grown-up I have been. The story comes a very distant second to the telling.
I did not expect the prose to be so wickedly self-aware and Wodehouse-level funny. I did not expect Captain Hook to be an empathetic case study in depression. I certainly did not expect to fall in love with Wendy's parents and their quirky domestic life. (Really, the biggest of the tale's many tragedies is that we have to follow the kids to Neverland and leave their delightful company.)
Most of all, I'm just floored by the final chapter. JM Barrie was far too honest about transience, adulthood and mortality to lie to children with a happily-ever-after. His beautiful closing words left me with a jumble of feelings as strange and lovely and bittersweet as anything I’ve read on the subject - for child or adult.