ErgoPropterHoc's Full Review: Norton Juster - The Phantom Tollbooth
You descend into the depths, find an enjoyable story (and some sugar coated punctuation marks) -- and it's all over before you know it.
A few weeks ago, I was invited by my friend and colleague forkids to participate in a Children's Book event to celebrate her 400th posting to Epinions. This review is just one of many book reviews being posted tonight as part of this event. You can find the rest easily by visiting x-off.epinions.com , or you can search out the other reviews by these authors: forkids, andy, auntnono, Bonies7, caconti, caravan70, conradd, cornelia, CurtisEdmonds, DoubleCoog, emlin, expono, fdknight, gracef, Grouch, GwenK, halfsweet, jrk, kcfoxy, kchowell, kimmiko, KristinThomas, Lambira, Leah, mshawpyle, pogomom, poseidon, Redlass, sleestakk, stonehousellc, sweetpaulie, taurusmoon, WorkingMomof2.
There are not enough superlatives in the English language to praise this book. It is an explosion of etymological edification, a symphony of syntax and syllabication, a parody of praxis, a fully-fledged feat of philology! Sure to please children and adults alike, it is certainly a must-have for any public or private library.
Reality and fantasy collide in this epic struggle. A small boy named Milo, his watchdog Tock (who actually is a watch and a dog), and their bumbling sidekick, the Humbug, work to bring Rhyme and Reason back to the Kingdom of Wisdom. Along the way they visit a couple of cities and miles of the countryside where they encounter a festival for the senses, usually one sense at a time. They visit Dictionopolis, where words are grown, ("Money doesn't grow on trees … then something must. Why not words?") and Digitopolis, where numbers are mined. The map of "The Lands Beyond - including a description of the Several Towns, Boroughs and Municipalities Comprising the Kingdom of Wisdom" is included in the story, and at the front of the book. It's quite helpful in following the progress of our protagonists as they work their way towards the Castle in the Air.
The text tackles many fallacies in a whimsical way, putting a caricatured face to the concepts (or, in one case, no face at all). We address and resolve such fallacies as:
ad hominem: King Azaz will always disagree with the Mathemagician, just because he is the Mathemagician;
ad baculum: the Gelatinous Giant, who is actually afraid of almost everything,
ad verecundiam: the long-nosed, green-eyed, curly haired, wide-mouthed, thick-necked, broad shouldered, round-bodied, short-armed, bowlegged, big-footed monster - who is not actually long-nosed, green-eyed, curly haired, wide-mouthed, thick-necked, broad shouldered, round-bodied, short-armed, bowlegged, or big-footed, and in fact not at all frightening;
reductio ad absurdium: the Soundkeeper who stops releasing any sounds, as some sounds are being wasted or ignored;
tu quoque: Milo, who spent his days hurrying along without looking around him and the City of Reality, which disappeared without a single resident noticing.
slippery slope: According to King Azaz's Cabinet, "if one [word] is right, then ten are ten times as right."
Near the end of the book, it seems that a whole number of "evil" characters are crammed into just a page or two, each just barely described. The ugly horned Dilemma, the Overbearing Know-it-all, and the Triple Demons of Compromise (one short and fat, one tall and thin, and one exactly like the other two) all appear in just a couple of paragraphs. Previously in the book, each new character had an entire chapter devoted to him (or her, or it) which illustrated that character fairly completely, while these at the end seem rushed through. Its almost as if the book used to be much longer, and an editor truncated the ending because it was becoming too long for a children's book. I can see the beginnings of at least five more chapters contained in the pages there, and it's a shame that they are not spun out as well as the rest of the book.
The book is illustrated by Jules Feiffer with line drawings every other page or so, but it is certainly best pictured in vivid colour inside your imagination. I don't mean to disparage Mr. Feiffer's work (which is really quite good), but Norton Juster weaves such a vivid tapestry with his text that no illustrations could possibly match the skill of Chroma the Great, who conducts the symphony of colour for your imagination.
The Phantom Tollbooth was originally published in 1961, but has lost none of its lustre in the years since then, and is still just as riveting and relevant as it was forty years ago. It addresses the same ills of society and language which have plagued us for years and will continue to do so long after all of us are gone. Overall, The Phantom Tollbooth is an enjoyable experience into realms where you think you've never been. But in the end, you can come to realise that Reality isn't necessarily something you can see, and while you may have passed near to Illusion, that isn't where you've actually been.
Illustrated in black-and-white. This ingenious fantasy centers around Milo, a bored ten-year-old who comes home to find a large toy tollbooth sitting ...More at HotBookSale
Illustrated in black-and-white. This ingenious fantasy centers around Milo, a bored ten-year-old who comes home to find a large toy tollbooth sitting ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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