Book Commentary
January 18, 2010
By Michael
I can't think of a more fitting cap to Tolkien's career than The Children of Hurin. The book design itself is suitably classical and subdued, with illustration by Alan Lee. I've read of some disappointment with the tale, but I find it the essence of Tolkien: bleak, melancholic, more in common with the Mabinogion or the Kalevala than the modern fantasy genre he unwittingly fathered. Highly recommended.
The ongoing war in Chechnya is little covered here in the West. So it was with great interest that I saw Chechnya: Life in a War-Torn Society arrive at the store: a careful and even-handed study of the origins and events of the war, written by one of Russia's most respected ethnologists. Canadians might find Valery Tishkov's career of interest, as he practically invented Canadian Studies in Russian universities. Tishkov in other work has argued for a post-nationalist understanding of nationalism.
Over the years, Jan Brett's illustration of children's book have caught my eye. Bright, intricate, amusing, and usually with those intriguing border panels running a parallel story to the main text. A board book has come our way, with his interpretation of Edward Lear's The Owl and the Pussycat. I've been a big fan of Lear for many years, and am no purist when it comes to illustrating him, either. One of my favorite Lear illustrators is John Vernon Lord, who also illustrated one of the Folio Society volumes of the collected Icelandic Sagas.
The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien. HarperCollins, London, 2007. Hardcover, $17.50
Chechnya: Life in a War-Torn Society by Valery Tishkov. University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London, 2004. Trade paperback, $12.50.
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat by Edward Lear and Jan Brett. Putnam, New York, 1991. Board book, $6.00.