Another box checked on the "things I've been sort of meaning to read for a while now" list. I finally wrote this review last Friday -- Friday the 13th! -- while sitting in a strange library,* taking a break between endurance bouts of integration.
* Not strange anymore -- I technically have a card for this library now (and all other public libraries in Maryland).
The most striking feature of The Tale of Despereaux is its extreme cuteness. The story's prose is charming to the point of being laugh-out-loud funny (sometimes on purpose, sometimes not). The invocation to the reader annoyed me somehow, although Adam thought it was charming.
Surprisingly although the story is sometimes a bit too conscious of itself as a story -- too much "Reader, this happened" and "Reader, that happened" -- it never struck me as too very self-conscious about the cuteness. It's appealing in a very obvious way, yet not in an acutely embarrassing way. It's really just sweet.
The trials Despereaux faces weren't as tense for me, as a reader, as they were for Despereaux himself, but that might be different if I were younger. Overall, I was charmed by the plot. I particularly like the way the story's resolution depended on almost every character having a bit of good in them. I also liked that it came about in spite of almost everyone having bit of doubt about themselves or their actions.
Since finishing Despereaux, I've seen Ratatouille, which has some obvious superficial similarities. I liked Ratatouille better, I think. On the other hand, I would not have appreciated it in precisely the same way if I hadn't just read Despereaux, so there you are.
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