Kay's Bookshelf

Understandably enough I was fond of the way Frederik related to his secret: he had a small cardboard city hidden in the attic, with two residents made out of threadless wooden spools, with their heads being acorns. Frederik thinks they may feel lonely, and goes on to search for a way to get the pair a boat to go sailing, “to hunt for more family”. I found that to be a cute idea, and also the very reason why the path of Frederik and the little girl with the matches will intersect, albeit for a very short while.

This is another one of those stories where everyone is good and the atmosphere is relaxed. The queen was my favorite from this point of view, as she was quite a clumsy creature, always stepping on the hems of her dresses; a detail that could have made her ridiculous to the reader, but as she also treated everyone quite nicely, I ended up being amused by her in a good way.

A part of the product description of the book on Amazon.com (something I didn’t think about myself but is obvious once it’s been pointed out):

When it was first translated from Danish and published in England in the mid-nineteenth century, audiences likely interpreted the Little Match Girl′s dying visions of lights and a grandmother in heaven as metaphors of religious salvation. Maguire′s new piece, entitled “Matchless,” reilluminates Andersen′s classic, using his storytelling magic to rekindle Andersen′s original intentions, and to suggest transcendence, the permanence of spirit, and the continuity that links the living and the dead.

Another thing I have loved from the very first is the title. Which I find beautiful :)
I have no idea whether I am right or not, but I took it to be a play on words, as matchless means both with no matches (just like the little girl was after all her matches have burned) and without a match, alone, as two of the characters in the book happen to be. Also, at one point the girl’s mother’s eyes were mentioned to be matchless (as in unique), and I enjoyed having yet another meaning to play with. Isn’t it great that one single word title can be interpreted in so many ways? :)

Thoughts on the ending: It’s quite cute, made even more so by the pictures. How else :)

What I liked most: The fact that the author has managed to take such a gloomy story and turn it into a happy one without actually changing anything of importance…

What I liked least: …however, I was nevertheless a bit disappointed by the fact that the original story wasn’t changed; for some reason I was expecting otherwise. Didn’t bother me that much though as the whole was happy enough overall.

Recommend it to? Everyone. It a very short read (272 lines, according to one reviewer), and the pics (drawn by the author himself) are really nice :)

Written by the same author:
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
Wicked

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Popularity: 11% [?]

Both Luther and Nora are just so… sketchy. There’s nothing much to be said about them other than they love their daughter. Luther is a bit cheap (understandably enough given that he was an accountant) and Nora is just an upper-class housewife. At least I was glad to see that their relationship was strong enough to resist both the attacks of their neighbors and the pangs of regret Nora sometimes felt at having to skip certain parts of the festivities along with the bad ones.

Now that I think about it I don’t quite know why I have started reading this book, having seen the movie a while ago and not quite enjoying it (it had a happy ending but that’s all I ever liked about it). If anything the book was blander than the movie (at least the movie sort of annoyed me seeing all those nosy and aggressive neighbors that seemed to have missed all of was Christmas is truly about — interestingly enough, even though the book sort of had the very same scenes, they failed to raise any actual feeling from me).

Furthermore, I sort of fail to understand the point the author is trying to make: skipping the mindless consumerism of Christmas is bad? I for one cannot but root for the Kranks, both because it’s their right to do what they choose with their time and money and also because Christmas is not about the tree you put up or the things you buy — nevertheless I had the impression that the narrator/author was secretly finding their plight ridiculous, and had a “serves them right” moment at the end where they have to hurriedly prepare everything they resisted preparing until then, with the predictable difficulties this implies (such as nothing actually useful left in stores).

What I liked most: I was a bit amused at the way Luther treated those who wanted to sell him stuff to help various charities: he didn’t buy anything at the moment but he promised them he’ll buy for the same amount or larger in the spring/summer/whenever they were raising money again. Which didn’t quite help his money saving goal :P

What I liked least: Meh. It was too bland overall for anything to actually stand out. What was it with Marty though?

Recommend it? Well, most people at Amazon liked it so don’t let me put you off. It’s a very short book so you might want to give it a try :)

Written by the same author:
Runaway Jury

Amazon Affiliate. If you click an Amazon link and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Popularity: 4% [?]