The Neverending Story (1979)

This book is great but I’m happy that I’m done with it because every time I picked up the book or looked at or thought about it, the chorus from the movie’s theme song would go through my head. I’ve been in hell. I love stories that are in love with storytelling and this is one of the biggest examples of that. Very odd and sweet and a little melancholy because most stories for kids seem to be a little sad or maybe those were just the ones I was drawn to as a kid. Anyway watch the first movie and then wait a month to get over how devastated the Swamp of Sadness made you and watch the sequels because a very young Jack Black is in the third one. ( )

Sure felt never ending…

I watched the movie probably a few dozen times as a kid and loved it. A couple of years ago, we got the book for my daughter, who was probably 8 at the time, and she seemed to like it. This summer, we took it on as a family reading project, and I've spent evenings over the last couple of weeks struggling through it. The book is delightful at times, very tedious at other times, and often random and outright bizarre. I wonder if there's not a lot of it that doesn't make more sense if you know more German folk tales or something.

Better just to stick to the movie in my opinion. There's better reading elsewhere. ( )

Bastian Balthasar Bux, the protagonist of the story, is a fat twelve-year old who one day stumbles into an antique bookstore to escape some bullies on his way to school. There, he discovers the eponymous Neverending Story. He steals the book and takes it with him to school where he decides to skip classes only to go to the attic and read the book. The book captivates Bastian right from the beginning and eventually he completely forgets the world around him. The first half of the novel deals with the imminent downfall of the kingdom of Fantastica that can only be averted if its ruler, the Childlike Empress, is given a name by someone from the human realm. This is where Bastian comes into play and the book takes a turn and drags Bastian into the story. He enters Fantastica and is now responsible for the future of this imaginary world. But will he ever be able to return to the real world again? Does he even want to?

Michael Ende's The Neverending Story is one of the rare instances where I first saw the movie and then read the novel. In this case, however, it has probably been more than 25 years since I watched the movie. It is a distant yet a very fond childhood memory that I wanted to relive by reading the novel and I have to say: the novel certainly delivered. I know this is highly subjective, but the novel took me away not only to Fantastica but also to myself not even being ten years old and falling in love with the idea of a country where things went according to your wishes, where you could be who you want to be and where everything turned out fine in the end. Especially in the times we live in today and with all the stress and all the work I had this year, reading the novel provided a very welcome form of escapism for me. 4 stars. ( )

There were several times when I felt like the story would never end, but I did finish it. ( )