|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HELP | |
|
  $17.50 List price:
TRADE PAPER, USED
Usually ships in 5 to 7 business days
 available for shipping or prepaid pickup only
More copies of this ISBN:The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narniaby Laura Miller
Review-a-Day (What is Review-a-Day?)"[Miller] re-read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for an assignment a few years back and found that it had not entirely lost its radiance, its uncanny power to stir. "What I dislike about Narnia," she discovered, "no longer eclipses what I love about it." She set out to determine why — and perhaps to help reclaim it for those misguidedly convinced that it is only a work of Christian apologetics." Elizabeth Ward, The Washington Post Book World (read the entire Washington Post Book World review) Literary critic Laura Miller first passed through the Narnia portal in the second grade. She was raised Catholic but had fallen away from what she calls the church's "guilt-mongering and tedious rituals." She writes, "I was horrified to discover that the Chronicles of Narnia, the joy of my childhood and the cornerstone of my imaginative life, were really just the doctrine of the Church in disguise." But Miller could never escape Narnia's spell, and in The Magician's Book, she returns to the landscape of Narnia to search for its deeper meaning. It's a journey of great pleasure — Miller is a wise, down-to-earth and often funny narrator. The result is one of the best books about stories and their power that I have ever read. Mary Ann Gwinn, The Seattle Times (read the entire Seattle Times review) Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:The Magician's Book is the story of one reader's long, tumultuous relationship with C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. Enchanted by its fantastic world as a child, prominent critic Laura Miller returns to the series as an adult to uncover the source of these small books' mysterious power by looking at their creator, Clive Staples Lewis. What she discovers is not the familiar, idealized image of the author, but a more interesting and ambiguous truth: Lewis's tragic and troubled childhood, his unconventional love life, and his intense but ultimately doomed friendship with J.R.R. Tolkien.
Finally reclaiming Narnia "for the rest of us," Miller casts the Chronicles as a profoundly literary creation, and the portal to a life-long adventure in books, art, and the imagination. Review:"Jam-packed with critical insights and historical context, this discussion of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia from Miller's double perspectives — as the wide-eyed child who first read the books and an agnostic adult who revisits them — is intellectually inspiring but not always cohesive. Finding her distrust of Christianity undermined by her love of Lewis's indisputably Christian-themed world, Salon.com cofounder and staff writer Miller seeks to 'recapture [Narnia's] old enchantment.' She replaces lost innocence with understanding, visiting Lewis's home in England, reading his letters and books (which she quotes extensively) and interviewing readers and writers. Lengthy musings on Freudian analysis of sadomasochism, J.R.R. Tolkien's Anglo-Saxon nationalism and taxonomies of genre share space with incisive and unapologetic criticism of Lewis's treatment of race, gender and class. The heart of the book is in the first-person passages where Miller recalls longing to both be and befriend Lucy Pevensie and extols Narnia's 'shining wonders.' Her reluctant reconciliation with Lewis's and Narnia's imperfections never quite manages to be convincing, but anyone who has endured exile from Narnia will recognize and appreciate many aspects of her journey." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:As a small girl growing up in California, Laura Miller did not just long to visit Narnia. So bewitched was she by that shining imagined realm — laid out in seven novels back in the 1950s by an eccentric English don — she was pretty sure that not being able to visit it in person would kill her. Along with its various sequels and prequels, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" brought her the purest... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) Book News Annotation:A co-founder and staff writer at Salon.com, Miller explains why and
how it is still possible for her to love C.S. Lewis' fantasy novels
despite the biases and small-mindedness they sometimes display,
despite suspecting that she would not like the author very much, and
despite the proselytizing that most adults assume is their only real
content.
Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Review:"[Miller's] sometimes affectionate, sometimes analytical book will delight both skeptics and true believers." Booklist (Starred Review) Review:"Erudite extended essay about C.S. Lewis's classic fantasy series, the meaning of reading in childhood and the author's internal landscape....A rewarding study by a first-rate arts writer." Kirkus Reviews Review:"An engrossing examination of the importance of children's literature....Part memoir, part passionate reassessment of the lost literary pleasures of childhood, Magician is a beautiful and thoughtful journey back to why we read." Danielle Trussoni, People Review:"Miller has created a rare and beautiful beast: a book with the head of a critique, the body of a bibliography, and the heart of a memoir. By recapturing Narnia, she redeems our passion and allows readers to re-discover the wonder of first love. That's some trick." Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair Review:"[I]t is refreshing to come across an author who shows us how to talk about the books we love....[Miller] also moves us beyond childhood, revealing that the books we loved as children can continue to quicken and expand our imaginations, especially when we have a guide like this one..." BookForum Review:"[A] thoughtful and humane journey back to an appreciation of what Lewis created. But it is more than a personal story: It is also an exploration of Lewis's life, his intellectual inclinations and his literary friendships..." The Wall Street Journal Review:"Conversational, embracing, and casually erudite, Laura Miller's superb long essay is the kind that comes along too rarely, a foray into the garden of one book that opens to the whole world of reading, becoming in the process a subtle reader's memoir, and manifesto." Jonathan Lethem Review:"This is a magical weave of rich soulful criticism....Miller creates an amazing literary work....I couldn't put it down, even as I felt tremendous anticipation of picking up The Chronicles of Narnia again, forty-five years after I first fell in love with it, too." Anne Lamott, author of Grace (Eventually) Synopsis:Enchanted by The Chronicles of Narnia's fantastic world, Miller uncovers the source of these small books' mysterious power by looking at their creator, C. S. Lewis. The author casts the Chronicles as a profoundly literary creation, and the portal to a life-long adventure in books, art, and the imagination.
About the AuthorLaura Miller is a journalist and critic. She is a cofounder of Salon.com, where she is currently a staff writer, and is the editor of The Salon.com Readers Guide to Contemporary Authors. A regular contributor to the New York Times Book Review, her work has also appeared in The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, Time, and other publications. She lives in New York. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 1 comment: | ||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
Don't Miss
