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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Maguire Takes on a Master, October 13, 2009
This review is from: Matchless: A Christmas Story (Hardcover)
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It takes a certain kind of courage to retell a classic holiday tale, especially one by a master such as Hans Christian Andersen. Modern storyteller Gregory Maguire has a special ability to comprehend the life and emotions of someone whose life has been wind-whipped by challenge -- and to share that person's story with subtle power and sympathy.
Clever puns and wordplay are among the most noticeable elements of the half-dozen Wicked stories that have vaulted Maguire to international notice. This time out, Maguire mutes his voice in the short Christmas story he crafted at the request of National Public Radio. Using simple words and phrases, he reworks Andersen's "The Little Match Girl," making the story line a bit gentler for 21st-century ears and yet preserving the simple spareness of Andersen's message.
I found myself rereading "Matchless" and finding nuances that weren't obvious the first time through, even though the writing is clear and comprehensible. Without spoiling any aspect of the story for you, although the story is brief, it's not superficial. It includes a section that can be interpreted literally or allegorically.
Maguire wrote this to be read aloud -- indeed, its first appearance was on Christmas Day, 2008, as he read it on the NPR air waves, and its rhythm, cadence and pace all are well-suited for the spoken voice. The line art that Maguire drew to accompany his words has an unpolished charm of its own, which adds to the keepsake nature of this little volume, but the tale is most powerful when read aloud.
One of our family traditions is for me to read Francis Pharcellus Church's "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" to our children, even though they're teenagers and well past the age where they could read to themselves. I'm thinking that adding "Matchless" to this tradition can only enrich it.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Adding Some Light To A Morbid Holiday Classic, September 26, 2009
This review is from: Matchless: A Christmas Story (Hardcover)
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As a kid I was always fascinated by my mom's account of THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL. She told the story as it had been told to her by her blind Polish born grandmother but the story's basic points remained the same as what Denmark's Hans Christian Anderson published in the mid nineteenth century. The plot of Anderson's very short classic is quite simple. On a very cold New Year's Eve night a poverty stricken little girl is sent out by her family to sell matches. Her shoes are her mothers and way too large and she loses one and another is stolen by an "urchin". Reluctant to go home because she knows it is just as cold there as well as by the fact she will likely be beaten by her father for not selling any matches she stays out in the freezing weather and lights her unsold wares for warmth and comfort. At the lighting of the matches she sees beautiful visions the most compelling being of her deceased grandmother who provided the only love she had ever known in her harsh life. The little match girl is found frozen to death the next morning with a beautiful smile on her face we assume is from the lovely visions she experienced that night.
Anderson's original story is retold in part two of Gregory Maguire's four part (but still very brief) "illumination" which is being packaged just in time for the holidays as MATCHLESS. In part one of this retelling we are introduced to a new character, Frederik, a male contemporary of the little girl who turns out to be the urchin who steals one of her shoes. Though the little match girl still meets her sad fate there is more hope in Maguire's story. Frederik, his single mother and the father and siblings of the dead little girl do find happiness together in part three. And part four certainly ends on an optimistic note.
This would make a great read aloud which is not too surprising since it was written in 2008 for a holiday broadcast on National Public Radio. I was annoyed with Maguire that with his retelling of the story he changed the time from New Year's Eve to Christmas as well as making the girl's deceased mother appear to her instead of her grandmother. I forgave him when I saw in his author's note he acknowledges these changes in the "interest of drama." Maguire illustrates his story with some spare drawings which are not really to my taste but do go with the bleakness and poverty of at least the first part of the story. This is a very quick read which could become a holiday tradition.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
gilding the lily, September 22, 2009
This review is from: Matchless: A Christmas Story (Hardcover)
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This review is based on an uncorrected proof.
In the early '60s, "Hans Christian Andersen" was first shown on TV, with a promotional LP offered as a tie-in, of Victor Borge reading several Andersen stories, including "The Little Match Girl". I can't imagine how the story or Borge's reading of it could be improved. (This recording should be reissued. It's on the same level as E B White reading "Charlotte's Web".)
Maguire's enhancement includes a new character who unknowingly interacts with the little match girl. Their relationship leads to a "miraculous" event at the end. It's clever without being cute -- and it softens the harshness of the original story.
Unfortunately, "The Little Match Girl" /is/ a brutally harsh story, with an ambiguous ending. By indicating that the girl's death has taken her to a better existance (rather than leaving us wondering whether what she saw was just her imagination), Maguire removes most of the harshness.
His illustrations range from mediocre to good. I don't feel they add much, though they permit the book to be described as "An Illumination of Hans Christian Andersen's Classic". In the literary context, "Illumination" has two senses, and Andersen's story needs neither illustrations nor additional insight into its meaning. It can stand on its own.
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