The Magician's Book - Laura Miller

This book made me want to read more literary criticism. Or more literature in general. I wish I were half as smart as the author, or could speak so thoughtfully on a subject.

I read and re-read the Chronicles of Narnia as a child. At some point, someone clued me in to the religious symbolism, and while it didn’t relate to me, I still loved the books. I even kept reading them as a kind of comfort food as an adult. Then a couple of years ago, I read comments about them by Philip Pullman (author of the His Dark Materials trilogy), and he talked about the sexism, racism, and elitism in the books. Also about the disturbing view of religion and God (how God functions to punish people in the books, how death is presented as better than life). And I thought Pullman was so on the nose that I couldn’t read them anymore in good conscience. So I was really excited to read a book about Narnia from someone who had also loved them, and also was a skeptic. I was not disappointed.

Laura Miller divides the book into three sections. In the first, she talks about why the Chronicles of Narnia work for children. She talks about the magical writing and the way children approach the books. I thought her observations were dead-on. Then she talks about the problems with the books – the sexism, racism, and elitism that Philip Pullman identifies. She doesn’t pull any punches, but she also observes that if we judge writers by contemporary standards of conduct, we can’t read much great literature. In the third section, she talks about how Lewis’s life influenced his writing of the Chronicles, his friendship with Tolkien, and the context in which the books were written.

One of the unexpected pleasures in this book is reading about what other famous writers think of the Chronicles of Narnia, like Neil Gaiman (Stardust, among much else) and Susanna Clarke (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which is also a wonderful book).

I feel so much better educated for having read this discussion of the Chronicles of Narnia. I’m planning to re-read it (and them).

The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia
Laura Miller
2008

Available from Amazon