Alice Through the Needle's Eye

When I read something like this, I marvel at how exquisite Lewis Carroll's originals were. I suppose it's easier to transform Alice into another medium (opera, film, painting) rather than try to replicate the will-o-the-wisp genius of those first two books. Gilbert Adair does a fair job, but I end up being disappointed at times by how similar it is, and at other times by how dissimilar it is--you can't win for trying. Some of the conceptions didn't seem quite right, to me, and I think he's better with wordplay than with characterization: most of his puns worked, but none of the new introductions had anywhere near half the panache of even a minor original character.

So worth reading if you're curious, but I was never in a place where I show more felt "golly, I can't wait to return to this book because I'm enjoying it so much," that never happened.

(I feel much the same reading other Carroll works--Sylvie and Bruno aren't a match for the Alice books, not by a long shot).

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). show less

I finished "Alice through the Needle's Eye" this morning. Kids who liked "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" will like this one too - the author, Gilbert Adair, was able to icatch the character and personality of the original Alice exceedingly well. The whole episode turned out to be a crazy dream (or was it?) and was pretty chaotic. But the play on words is good, and it's amusing even if it did get a little draggy for me in the middle.

A worthy third book in the Alice in Wonderland trilogy! Gilbert Adair seems to channel Lewis Carroll, and the illustrator, Jenny Thorne, channels John Tenneil.