Into the Looking-Glass Wood: Essays on Words and the World - Softcover

Manguel, Alberto

3.88

217 ratings by Goodreads

9780676972429: Into the Looking-Glass Wood: Essays on Words and the World

Softcover

ISBN 10: 067697242X ISBN 13: 9780676972429

Publisher: Vintage Books Canada, 1999

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By the award-winning author of A History of Reading

"For me, words on a page give the world coherence--Words tell us what we, as a society, believe the world to be--I believe there is an ethic of reading--a commitment that is both political and private in the act of turning the pages. And I believe that sometimes, beyond the author's intentions and beyond the reader's hopes, a book can make us better and wiser."

Through personal stories and literary reflections, in a style rich in humour and gentle erudition, Manguel leads us, the readers, to reflect upon the pleasures and responsibilities of reading, and the links that exist between the world we live in, and the words we live amongst. Into the Looking-Glass Wood is a voyage into the subversive heart of words - a voyage fired by the author's humanity and extraordinary breadth of vision.

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Review:

Following his celebrated A History of Reading, Alberto Manguel has collected a number of his powerful and various essays on the topic of words and world. Linked by scenes from Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass--a reading treasured since Manguel's childhood--these essays range widely: from "Borges in Love" to "The Death of Che Guevara" (one of the most impressive essays here), from the autobiographical "On Being Jewish" ("Am I a Jew?") to "Browsing in the Rag-and-Bone Shop" (an indictment of the "literary pretensions" of Bret Easton Ellis's notorious American Psycho. Certain themes run through the book: the role, and ethics, of reading and writing in a world so often violent, or murderous; the exploration of literature and/as prejudice (Chinua Achebe's assessment of Conrad's Heart of Darkness as a "racist" text); the problem of literary catalogues: the difficulty not only of knowing what to read (the question of reviewing) but, more urgently, how to read. As a reader, Manguel sets a beguiling example, dwelling in the land of books, laying down the wager of words to "give the world coherence"; as a writer, he uses those words to challenge his readers to read--more and differently. --Vicky Lebeau

Review:

"A superb collection-- A fantastic voyage through the world of books-- permeated by [Manguel's] playful wit and love of paradox." - Germaine Greer

"Splendid [and] eloquently expressed--Manguel's writing at its strongest and most original." - TLS

"In a modern world that assails all our senses simultaneously, Manguel's writing stands as a cool pool of reflection-- The big themes haunting our century are re-viewed through a literary lens--never academic--rich in anecdotes." - The Independent

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