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What a refreshing read!
It’s been a long time since I’ve gone through a book this quickly, but the world of Neverland truly drew me in. The story isn’t exactly as long as I had thought it would be, either, so I must say I’m surprised with the ease at which I polished this one off. Since there have been so many adaptations of this story, each one different {but just as exciting as the last} I sort of expected more. The content certainly wasn’t lacking in quality, it’s just that I had anticipated a greater quantity. A dazzling story such as this surely must be as intricately woven and as expansive as the night sky itself, no?
Not so! I find that films have just embellished, developed, and imagined more backstory than there actually was, which is nice because it’s such an interesting world to explore anyway. Plus, we’ve all grown up with the basic story line, so if every adaptation wasn’t a little different we’d become rather bored if it all, wouldn’t we? While we’re speaking of people getting bored easily, I must admit that this true Peter Pan rather annoyed me! In the movies that I’ve seen of him, he was sort of a guide to the Darling children, and a hero. In the book he was just a selfish, greedy little boy no further concerned with anyone else’s well-being than he was with where his next meal would come from {which he wasn’t concerned with at all since he just imagined all of his meals and there they were – no work or forethought required}. Here were three children who trusted him enough to leave their comfortable and safe home to fly away with him into a world unknown and he couldn’t always even be trusted to stick around! I was actually a little scared for them…
I did, though, enjoy how true to this story Mary Martin’s Peter Pan was. This film was the first I ever heard of the story, and one of the movies I rented most from the library as a child. I watched that tape so many times, just enamoured with the whole of it. So many times while I was reading the book, the feeling of that movie came back to me which means that they pulled it off very accurately. Maybe this should be the next sleepover movie that we rent with my niece!
I also truly enjoyed the concept of Neverland being shared amongst all children subconsciously. Barrie suggests that this is the place where all of our dreams happen, and that we all have met Peter Pan and his hooligan friends! But, as our years pass here on “the mainland” we forget our adventures for good only vaguely recognizing the names or people from those times, without being able to place them.
I’m taking a bit of a break from the reading list these days, if you didn’t notice, but I’ll be hopping back on soon enough! I thrifted this copy of Peter Pan several months ago, and couldn’t stand the fact that I still hadn’t read it, so that was a necessary detour. From there, I thought I might as well get to a Murakami novel that my BFF leant me {I’m just over half way through already, it’s that good!}. And lined up for after this one, I’m planning on starting the Harry Potter series over again. Ryan’s been working his way through it, and since I never actually finished the last book, I’ve really got to get that going. My Dad and I bought all of the books in the series together and share the copies, but since Ryan has been working through them, we have them all at our house now! I’ve got to start my way through again so we can at least pass some of them back my parents’ way.
But, after The Sorcerer’s Stone it’s back to the book list again! When I read through a series I like to alternate each book with something outside of the series so I don’t get too burnt out on it. I find that a little time away makes me appreciate it all the more, and I think the same will be said for my reading list itself.
Happy page turning!
xx.
