At the Back of the North Wind

Rating:
Summary: A much needed children's classic
Review: A children's story that may be read on several different level's, North Wind is a timeless work of literature. Eagerly anticipated and listened to by the children I read it to, the story also strikes deeply at our adult sense of spirituality. This is the kind of writing that brings back the rewarding closeness of reading aloud to others. Too bad we don't do more of this.

Rating:
Summary: Haunting and poignant
Review: I've never read anyone who writes quite like MacDonald. When you read him it is not the quality of his writing, but rather his personality (kindly and eccentric, at the same time so quintessentially Scotch)and immensely powerful and original imagination that show on the page. He is more an excellent storyteller than a "proper" author, I think.

In the North Wind, as in much of MacDonald's work, there is a wealth of moral and religous themes and analougies under the surface. In my mid 20's now, I was surprised at the effect that reading MacDonald's childrens books has had on me. It is not that I would have disagreed on an intellectual level with anything in the books before reading them, but rather that McDonald has a talent for gently bringing people to examine what their opinions mean and how they treat other people as a result of them. I've found more than a few chinks in my own armour, in that respect.

As for North Wind in particular, it's quite a breathtaking, display of raw, imaginative brawn. The first third or so of the book is perhaps one of the most chilling and beautiful stories I've ever read. It becomes a little more conventional after that and meanders a little. There is a good bit of amiable nonsense and a fairy tale within it that, though it seems a little tacked on and has nothing to do with the greater story, is still very clever and charming. I think most adults will see the ending coming, but it left me a little shaken up anyway.

Like some of the other reviewers have mentioned, it's a very hard thing to create a character who is absoulutely good. There is a real danger of making the character into a weak, simpering, priggish, goody two shoes. It's a testament to MacDonald, even just that Diamond isn't appallingly annoying, but that he is actually a very likable and smypathetic character. He reminded me very much of a small version of Dostoyevsky's Prince Myshkin.

To close, I feel I can hardly recommend MacDonald in general or North Wind in particular highly enough. Be certain to get an unedited version, there is nothing in the original that you'll want to do without (I read the puffin classics edition with the cover art of Diamond on a glacier). Though the style is somewhat Victorian(not that there's anything in itself wrong with that) and though MacDonald's writing is a little idiosyncratic to begin with, I don't think it would present any serious problems to an older child or young adolescent reading on their own -at least, no more so than a book by Tolkien or Lewis would. It's true that McDonald was a Christian minister and this book is proabably best used, and was most likely originally intended, to be read aloud by parents to their children within a Christian family. That said, I do not think there is anything in it that any person with faith in God, whether they were Christian or otherwise, would find fault with. I think MacDonald is an author who repays an open and thoughtful reading in a way that will work for many people in many stages of their life.

Rating:
Summary: A book of Faith
Review: This children's book has had a profound impact on my faith and spirituality. It is a book I have read and re-read over the years, especially when I am struggling with my faith. The story, Diamond's relationship with the North Wind, satisfies one on an almost mystical level. Its simple, beautiful story leaves one knowing that no matter what happens in the world, God is God; and we can rest assured that He is in control. We can be at peace, in spite of the pain and evil in the world.

Don't look for answers. Simply read the story and let it wash over you. If you have the faith of a child, you will not be unaffected.