The Book of Lost Things (Platinum Readers Circle (Center Point))

by John Connolly

[empressbrooke]

The Book of Lost Things is basically a fairy tale that pays homage to other fairy tales; the main character David disappears into a magic land after a German bomber plane crashes into his backyard and experiences a multitude of events culled from the books he's read (including, in the book's funniest scene, a book about Communism).

It's a story with many layers and an ambiguous end, which makes it a shame that the last 130 pages of the book are the author's notes and thoughts about the story. Even though at times he says things like, "But that's not the only view to take of that scene," he almost ruins the depth of the book by talking about it too much. I really appreciated that he explained all of the fairy tales that he referenced and provided their original texts - some of them were obscure and I'd never heard of them before. But for him to then analyze why he chose each one and what its elements meant to David, that was just too much. The story stands up perfectly well without him explaining himself, and his readers are surely intelligent enough to make the connections themselves.