★★★☆☆ The Essential Peter S. Beagle, Volume I: Lila the Werewolf and Other Stories, by Peter S. Beagle, Jane Yolen (Introduction), Stephanie Pui-Mun Law (Illustrator)
The Frédéric Chopin of literature
The Essential Peter S. Beagle, Volume I: Lila the Werewolf and Other Stories
Peter S. Beagle, Jane Yolen (Introduction), Stephanie Pui-Mun Law (Illustrator)
The Frédéric Chopin of literature
The name Peter Beagle is familiar to every reader of fantasy, yet somehow I had never read any of his work (no, not even The Last Unicorn). These regrettable gaps in ones essential education do occur. Thus I was pleased to see the release of The Essential Peter S. Beagle, Volume I: Lila the Werewolf and Other Stories and Volume II. The ARC begins with a Press release in which fantasy authors such as Ursula LeGuin, Madeleine L'Engel, and Seanan McGuire are joined by unnamed critics at the New York Times Book Review and Saturday Review in praising Beagle in almost superhuman yet still personal terms. The book proper begins with an Introduction "Peter Beagle: Bottling Talent" in which Jane Yolen praises Beagle in similar terms but at greater length.
This all felt somehow familiar to me. Then I realized what it was! It's like hearing musicians talk about Frédéric Chopin! Chopin was, of course, one of the greatest of classical composers. In my experience, however, when a person who is not a musician wants to play classical music, works by Chopin come up less frequently than other composers of similar stature. Praise for Chopin comes mostly from people who themselves play piano. It is, I think, MUCH more fun to play Chopin than to listen to him. Beagle is similar in this sense: that he is most appreciated by his writer colleagues, who appreciate his craft.
Chopin is not one of my favorite composers. And, for similar reasons Beagle will never be one of my favorite authors. Both of them are a little too refined for me. Oddly, Beagle himself, in the final story in this book, expresses quite accurately what I miss in Chopin and Beagle
What I did somehow understand, bright and blind as I was, was that he was dancing for his life.
What I want most, from a dancer or a composer or a writer, is to understand that, at the moment of performance, what they're doing is the most important thing in the world -- the thing that is going to save the world, if done with everything the artist has. I don't feel that in Beagle. Now, I'm sure some readers will argue that's MY problem -- that Beagle is writing over my head, and that I'm too dense to feel the passion.
That may be true, but that is the opposite of how it feels to me. As I read Beagle, I see how cleverly he does this, and how skillfully that. I clearly feel his deft touch on the strings. I see the skill with which he flicks them and pulls on my heart and mind. But you see, that is not what it feels like to be under the influence of a master puppeteer. If you perceive the puppeteer, then he/she is not a master. The master puppeteer is the one who completely vanishes, and who makes the puppet vanish.
I'm protesting too much, in trying to be clear. I like this book, and I like Peter Beagle. If my appreciation is more a matter of intellect than pathos, well, intellectual appreciation is something. And it'll be more for other readers.
I thank NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for an advance reader copy of The Essential Peter S. Beagle, Volume I. This review expresses my honest opinions.
The Essential Peter S. Beagle, Volume I: Lila the Werewolf and Other Stories on Amazon