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A review by emjay796
At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald
3.5
It's been a week, and I'm still deciding how I feel about At the Back of the North Wind.
I bought this from a used book store back in high school or early college. I've been meaning to get to it for years, so when it was chosen by a book club for January, I jumped at the chance. The last I read from MacDonald was Lilith... which, clearly, was a very different story from North Wind. I know this story has been beloved by many for over a century—I wanted to discovery why.
And I think I do, now. Or, at least, I understand as much as I ever will. The interactions between Diamond and North Wind are twisty and neatly fold in upon themselves... classic MacDonald. But my favorite moments were the descriptions of the world when Diamond was flying alongside the Wind:
"As they flew, so fast they went that the sea slid away from under them like a great web of shot silk, blue shot with grey, and green shot with purple."
"But soon he began to see that the sky was very lovely, with mottled clouds all about the moon, on which she threw faint colours like those of mother-of-pearl, or an opal."
MacDonald saw the world as a joyful, optimistic poet, and that sensitivity to beauty colors every corner of this story. The messaging was less satisfying... I am very far removed from MacDonald's Victorian era, from his presuppositions about goodness and pain and virtue. At this stage of my life, I found the theodicy layer to this allegory unsatisfying—and I do not have the scholarship mettle to get into a discussion about MacDonald's views on class, poverty, and suffering (in short: they're very optimistic). Maybe, one day, I'll be uncynical enough to re-read this story and treasure it. Until then, I'm glad for my visit to the back of the north wind, if only to have witnessed the beauty of it.
I bought this from a used book store back in high school or early college. I've been meaning to get to it for years, so when it was chosen by a book club for January, I jumped at the chance. The last I read from MacDonald was Lilith... which, clearly, was a very different story from North Wind. I know this story has been beloved by many for over a century—I wanted to discovery why.
And I think I do, now. Or, at least, I understand as much as I ever will. The interactions between Diamond and North Wind are twisty and neatly fold in upon themselves... classic MacDonald. But my favorite moments were the descriptions of the world when Diamond was flying alongside the Wind:
"As they flew, so fast they went that the sea slid away from under them like a great web of shot silk, blue shot with grey, and green shot with purple."
"But soon he began to see that the sky was very lovely, with mottled clouds all about the moon, on which she threw faint colours like those of mother-of-pearl, or an opal."
MacDonald saw the world as a joyful, optimistic poet, and that sensitivity to beauty colors every corner of this story. The messaging was less satisfying... I am very far removed from MacDonald's Victorian era, from his presuppositions about goodness and pain and virtue. At this stage of my life, I found the theodicy layer to this allegory unsatisfying—and I do not have the scholarship mettle to get into a discussion about MacDonald's views on class, poverty, and suffering (in short: they're very optimistic). Maybe, one day, I'll be uncynical enough to re-read this story and treasure it. Until then, I'm glad for my visit to the back of the north wind, if only to have witnessed the beauty of it.