The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle

Ballentine Books, Copyright 1968, 248 pages

ISBN 345-22892-8-125

Read November 2014, at age 36

First time read

What it is:

This is a short, stand-alone fairy tale.  It’s completely ageless.

From the back cover:

Well, there’s a picture of a harpy in a cage and a snake in a tree on the back.  There’s a unicorn on the front, and there are no words.  And this is a first printing.  The book is a classic, so it was apparently sufficient to sell the book.

Reactions after the break:

Overall:

I’m not sure that I like reading fairy tales.  You don’t get much of a feel for the characters, and it feels like a story, not a story...gah.  I don’t know how to explain it.  

Let me try again:  It feels like someone is telling me a story, not like the characters are living in their own world during exciting times.  You’re never able to get past that it’s made-up.  I still don’t think I’m articulating it right, but that’s the best I’ve got. 

It was similar to Stardust in that way – detached.  But it was a wonderful story, funny and melancholy, heroic and sad in turns, and sometimes all at once.  I’m not entirely sure exactly what to think.  I think I liked it.

Rating:  3

Characters:

I didn’t feel that I knew the characters.  They were actors, putting on a play.  They had roles, and played them well, but I didn’t get to feel the person (or being) behind the role.

Setting:

Similarly, I’m not exactly sure what the setting was.  Keeping with the acting theme, the setting was a set for the actors to move around on, but it wasn’t fleshed out.

Plot:

The plot felt arbitrary, and a bit random.  Again, there was no realism.  I think it was heavy with allegory, and I might have picked up on some of it, but not a lot.  I’m going to have to do a bit more reading of writings about this book, I think.

Readability:

The writing was beautiful, but it didn’t always make sense – there were turns of phrase that were lovely to read, but… here’s an example: “White and secret, morning-horned, she regarded him with piercing gentleness, but he could not touch her.”  It’s lovely, but what does it even mean?  It was a book to get lost in the words and the rhythm of the writing, and just let the story wash over you.  To listen to the tone, not worry about the details.

Other Opinions:

This is a heavily reviewed book.  It seems to fall under the "my favorite book" heading for many people, and as such, there's a lot of writing about it.  

Here's one I liked, and that I tend to agree with:

Russ Allbery