20 Days of Giveaways / Day 6 – THE MAGICIANS BOOK
THE MAGICIAN’S BOOK is the story of one reader’s long, tumultuous relationship with C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. As a child, Laura Miller read and re-read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and its sequels countless times, and wanted nothing more that to find her own way to Narnia. In her skeptical teens, a casual reference to the Chronicles’s Christian themes left her feeling betrayed and alienated from the stories she had come to know and trust. Years later, convinced that “the first book we fall in love with shapes us every bit as much as the first person we fall in love with,” Miller returns to Lewis’s classic fantasies to see what mysteries Narnia still holds for adult eyes–and is captured in an entirely new way.
In her search to uncover the source of these small books’ mysterious power, Miller looks to their creator, Clive Staples Lewis. What she discovers is not the familiar, idealized image of the author, but a man who stands in stark contrast to his whimsical creation-scarred by a tragic and troubled childhood, Oxford educated, a staunch Christian, and a social conservative, armed with deep prejudices.
THE MAGICIAN’S BOOK is an intellectual adventure story, in which Miller travels to Lewis’s childhood home in Ireland, the possible inspiration for Narnia’s landscape; unfolds his intense friendship with J.R.R.Tolkien, a bond that led the two of them to create the greatest myth-worlds of modern times; and explores Lewis’s influence on writers like Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Franzen, and Philip Pullman. Finally reclaiming Narnia “for the rest of us,” Miller casts the Chronicles as a profoundly literary creation, and the portal to a life-long adventure in books, art, and the imagination. Erudite, wide-ranging, and playful, THE MAGICIAN’S BOOK is for all who live in thrall to the magic of books.
Laura Miller is a co-founder of Salon.com, where she is currently a staff writer, and a regular contributor to the New York Times Book Review. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, Time magazine and other publications. She is the editor of The Salon.com Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Authors (Penguin, 2000). She lives in New York.
1. Laura Miller was introduced to the Chronicles of Narnia by her teacher and was immediately
swept into their magical world. Describe your own discovery and reaction to them.
2. When Miller writes about her most powerful reading experiences while growing up, she cites Island
of the Blue Dolphins, Five Children and It, and the Little House on the Prairie series. Name some
of the formative books of your childhood and discuss why they were important to you. What about
them has stayed with you into adulthood?
3. In the excerpt that opens The Magician’s Book, Lucy encounters the best story she has ever read.
Afterward, she is unable to remember what happened in the story or to reread it. Have you ever lost
yourself in a story as Lucy did? What were you reading? How old were you? Discuss why you think
you were able to forget yourself so completely. How do our daily lives affect the way we read? What
does this say about the role readers play in the creation of a story’s meaning?
4. Neil Gaiman and Jonathan Franzen note the importance of C. S. Lewis’s books in their own lives
and work. Discuss the similarities and differences between their books and the Chronicles of Narnia.
Have you noticed Lewis’s influence on other writers? If so, which writers? And why does their work
remind you of the Pevensie children’s adventures?
5. Does Miller’s description of C. S. Lewis’s life and personality alter your view of his novels? In what
ways? Have your opinions of other books changed after discovering personal details about the author?
Why does biographical information affect our interpretation?
6. Laura Miller writes that she will not address the religious symbolism in the Chronicles, focusing
instead on the stories and their creator. Do you agree with her decision? Are there other aspects of the
books you would have liked Miller to address?
7. When Miller discovered Narnia’s Christian messages, her feeling of betrayal drove her away.
Eventually, she returned and reexamined the books as an adult. Why was she upset by her new
understanding? Discuss the role that the passage from innocence to understanding played in her
reaction. Is one experience more valid than another?
8. Part memoir, part biography, and part literary criticism, The Magician’s Book touches on the many
factors that shaped the author’s relationship with the novels. Discuss the extent to which each reader’s
knowledge informs and shapes his or her interpretations of stories.
9. At its core, The Magician’s Book is the story of Laura Miller’s attempt to regain her childhood
enchantment with the Chronicles. Have you reread the Chronicles of Narnia as an adult? If so, how has your enjoyment or understanding of them changed? Do you think it is possible to regain the childhood experience of reading? Why?
I would love to read The Magician's Book. I think it's fascinating that the woman held on to her girlhood author throughout her life. Because of her love of the books we come to know more about these two great authors.
I have always thought of C.S. Lewis as a heavyweight. This will give me an idea of what the man was really like in terms I can understand. I did love his three Christian allegory books. I also loved Tolkien's The Hobbit. Hope I don't have my authors mixed up.
The name I go by is Tea. I am already a follower. This blog is one of my many favorites.
teakettle58(at)yahoo(dot)com
I love Narnia and C.S. Lewis, sign me up.
Rick (at) RhodesReview (dot) com.
I'd love to read this one! Please include me.
DarcyO
dlodden at frontiernet dot net
I'd love to read this. Many thanks for the possibility.
I'm a follower via GFC.
bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com
I am a follower (Charleydog).
I would like to enter the contest for this book. Many thanks!
pboylecharley AT hotmail DOT com
I would love to win this. I follow under pbclark.
pbclark(at)netins(dot)net
I am a follower,
Bill 😉
billsmith2003 (at) gmail (dot) com
Hope you'll check out my book giveaway:
http://drbillsbookbazaar.blogspot.com/2010/03/book-giveaway-back-to-homeplace.html
http://thehomeplaceseries.blogspot.com/
Count me in! I follow on Google Friend connect, and my username is Laura Hartness.
Thanks!
Laura Hartness
The Calico Critic
CalicoCritic at gmail dot com
I am a blog follower under "CallMeKayla". Thanks for the giveaway!
[email protected]
Would love to win and read this, it looks very interesting and the Narnia books are such classics. I am a Google Friend Connect follower (holdenj) Thanks!
JHolden955(at)gmail(dot)com
I have been a lover of C.S Lewis books since I was a child. Would love to read this one too!
freda.mans[at]sympatico.ca
This sounds wonderful! I had the same sort of childhood love for Little Women. I would love to read this. I follow under Colleen Turner and my email is [email protected].
This sounds like a fascinating book please enter me in, I am a follower of your blog
photoquest(at)bellsouth(dot)net
Please enter me as xxsquigglesxx!
xxsquigglesxx(At)Gmail(Dot)com
I've been wanting to read this for quite awhile. Please count me in. I follow.
bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com
Please enter me.
I am a follower.
laura(at)laurafabiani(dot)com
Please enter me in your giveaway. I am a follower as countrybear52.
Smiles,
Cindy W.
countrybear52[at]yahoo[dot]com
Would love to enter this
I follow you on GFC as couponmom
[email protected]
I would love to win this book! Thanks for the chance. I am a follower.
nancyecdavis AT bellsouth DOT net
I just finished reading all 7 of the Narnia books last month (or the month before) so it would be intersting to read this one.
Thanks for hosting the contest!
buckfamily at ptd dot net
The more I read of Narnia the more fascinated I am as to how others can create these wonderful places. I am a followwer as Cheli at Cheli's Shelves.
cyderryATyahooDOTcom
Chèli
Cheli's Shelves
I was enamored with with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a kid, but didn't read the rest of the the series until I was in my early 20s and married. Please count me in! Thank you!
nfmgirl AT gmail DOT com
Please count me in. I follow under Simply Stacie.
simplystacieblog at gmail dot com
I am following through your rss feed through Google.
[email protected]
WOw. Narnia was my escape from a terrible childhood. Every now and again i pick it up again just to escape once more. I am an adult and this is a series, I will never put down. This would be a great addition and a good summer read. PIc me plz?
I would love to have a copy of this and perhaps can talk my book club into reading it for discussion with all those good questions..thanks for the chance. I follow through Google Friend connect
kdhaney at gmail dot com
I am currently reading the Chronicles of Narnia to my boys, and it is so much fun to relive these stories through them! We currently have two more chapters left of The Horse and His Boy (which for weeks I've been calling The Boy and his Horse! DOH) and then on to Prince Caspian.
Please enter me, I would love to read this book!
APSkap (at) comcast (dot) net