REVIEW: Inkheart (the book)
Nov. 24th, 2008 07:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllInkheart: Cornelia Funke (translated by Anthea Bell) The Chicken House 2004 - paperback edition)
This is a book that will make even the most oblivious person about the physical form of a book notice it. I read from a library copy, because I wanted to read it before the film came out. It's the first Chicken House publication I've read - quirkily, the back suggests that you 'Read it! Try page 89' (I only noticed this after passing that point. I don't know if page 89 was particularly enticing).
This is very much a book for bookworms and about bibliophilia. I loved and recognised many of the book-loving characters' behaviours and attitudes about reading and owning and collecting books. Every chapter begins with a quote from what could probably called 'well-loved adventure stories', which I initially loved.
I had best say what the story is about to explain that. Twelve-year-old Meggie lives with her father Mo, an itinerant book-binder. Their lives are changed one night when a man who calls Mo 'Silvertongue' visits. His name is Dustfinger, and Meggie spends the whole book not sure whether or not to trust him. It turns out that he's the harbringer of Capricorn's men or thugs (Capricorn is the Inkheart of the title - his heart being as black as ink) and that the reason that Capricorn wants 'Silvertongue' so much is because Mo has an incredible gift, that anyone who's heard of the upcoming film will know about. When Mo reads aloud, he can bring objects and characters from books alive - into Meggie and Mo's story, as the book puts it.
Capricorn, the villain of a book entitled 'Inkheart', wants to use that gift for his own gain, and soon sees that Meggie is excellent bait. Cue kidnapping, escapes, kidnapping, book burning, more imprisoning and threats of execution with the help and hinderance of family and friends who mostly come out of books - for Meggie realises that she has the same gift as her father. With the help of Finoglio, the author of Inkheart, they have to come up with a plan to defeat Capricorn, but can they manage it?
It's a thick book that references other (better?) stories liberally and respectfully, keeping an old-fashioned tone while playing postmodern games - the writer points out that Meggie and Mo's reality isn't ours, it's a story, evey now and then. And although I'm wary because this is a translation, the Italianate setting distances us (is it the same setting and names in the original?).
It is a love letter to reading, although it's clear-sighted about the mania that that creates, see for instance, Elinor, a relative who follows in her bookworm father's booksteps and is fiercly protective of her houseful of books at the expense of any human relations (and a couple of laws). Books are an escapism for the good characters who love reading, not solely and not always, but mostly. On the other hand, the familiarity of the story is something of a downfall, you can predict many of the developments easily. I felt that it needed to be more sophisticated to sustain its length. And the introduction of Farid and the open-ended ultimate fate of Dustfinger, Farid and Basta are sequel-begging.
I must own that I found the heroine, Meggie, slightly irritating as the book went on. She had these little obsessions - things she HAD to know, usually bad stuff that the reader knew or could figure out. Then she goes soppy. This happens a lot, and I kept thiking of similarly aged protagoinsts in adventure stories who weren't so wet. There's a lot of repetitive tics (and I think they must be in the original) such as how Meggie can sense when people are lying, except when the author discards this ability. On the other hand, there are some really good descriptions that place you right there. And there are one or two non-idiomatic clunkers in the dialogue.
My issues may be rooted in the Elidor problem - I never forgave that book for not being The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, or even The Weirdstone of Brigthingummy. I know that Elidor has a specific focus, and so does this, but from the opening, I was hoping that Meggie and Mo would end up going to another world, not bring in characters from a book to their world. (Maybe I should either reread The Princess Bride or buy the fancy special edition DVD of the film).
As for the film, I...don't know if I want to see it now. It's sure to contain more action. Brendan Fraser's casting as the father (although he IS the go-to father in kid-friendly blockbusters these days) is weird, because like him as I do, he's more of a visual/physical performer/comedic actor than anything. Can he convey the power of reading aloud through his voice, which has to be the basis of the performance?
This is a book that will make even the most oblivious person about the physical form of a book notice it. I read from a library copy, because I wanted to read it before the film came out. It's the first Chicken House publication I've read - quirkily, the back suggests that you 'Read it! Try page 89' (I only noticed this after passing that point. I don't know if page 89 was particularly enticing).
This is very much a book for bookworms and about bibliophilia. I loved and recognised many of the book-loving characters' behaviours and attitudes about reading and owning and collecting books. Every chapter begins with a quote from what could probably called 'well-loved adventure stories', which I initially loved.
I had best say what the story is about to explain that. Twelve-year-old Meggie lives with her father Mo, an itinerant book-binder. Their lives are changed one night when a man who calls Mo 'Silvertongue' visits. His name is Dustfinger, and Meggie spends the whole book not sure whether or not to trust him. It turns out that he's the harbringer of Capricorn's men or thugs (Capricorn is the Inkheart of the title - his heart being as black as ink) and that the reason that Capricorn wants 'Silvertongue' so much is because Mo has an incredible gift, that anyone who's heard of the upcoming film will know about. When Mo reads aloud, he can bring objects and characters from books alive - into Meggie and Mo's story, as the book puts it.
Capricorn, the villain of a book entitled 'Inkheart', wants to use that gift for his own gain, and soon sees that Meggie is excellent bait. Cue kidnapping, escapes, kidnapping, book burning, more imprisoning and threats of execution with the help and hinderance of family and friends who mostly come out of books - for Meggie realises that she has the same gift as her father. With the help of Finoglio, the author of Inkheart, they have to come up with a plan to defeat Capricorn, but can they manage it?
It's a thick book that references other (better?) stories liberally and respectfully, keeping an old-fashioned tone while playing postmodern games - the writer points out that Meggie and Mo's reality isn't ours, it's a story, evey now and then. And although I'm wary because this is a translation, the Italianate setting distances us (is it the same setting and names in the original?).
It is a love letter to reading, although it's clear-sighted about the mania that that creates, see for instance, Elinor, a relative who follows in her bookworm father's booksteps and is fiercly protective of her houseful of books at the expense of any human relations (and a couple of laws). Books are an escapism for the good characters who love reading, not solely and not always, but mostly. On the other hand, the familiarity of the story is something of a downfall, you can predict many of the developments easily. I felt that it needed to be more sophisticated to sustain its length. And the introduction of Farid and the open-ended ultimate fate of Dustfinger, Farid and Basta are sequel-begging.
I must own that I found the heroine, Meggie, slightly irritating as the book went on. She had these little obsessions - things she HAD to know, usually bad stuff that the reader knew or could figure out. Then she goes soppy. This happens a lot, and I kept thiking of similarly aged protagoinsts in adventure stories who weren't so wet. There's a lot of repetitive tics (and I think they must be in the original) such as how Meggie can sense when people are lying, except when the author discards this ability. On the other hand, there are some really good descriptions that place you right there. And there are one or two non-idiomatic clunkers in the dialogue.
My issues may be rooted in the Elidor problem - I never forgave that book for not being The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, or even The Weirdstone of Brigthingummy. I know that Elidor has a specific focus, and so does this, but from the opening, I was hoping that Meggie and Mo would end up going to another world, not bring in characters from a book to their world. (Maybe I should either reread The Princess Bride or buy the fancy special edition DVD of the film).
As for the film, I...don't know if I want to see it now. It's sure to contain more action. Brendan Fraser's casting as the father (although he IS the go-to father in kid-friendly blockbusters these days) is weird, because like him as I do, he's more of a visual/physical performer/comedic actor than anything. Can he convey the power of reading aloud through his voice, which has to be the basis of the performance?
