Author: George MacDonald
Themes: Persistence
Quotes:
"I am very sorry you are blind." he said.
"Never you mind that, my dear. I see more than you do for all my blindness."
Reading/Listening Time: 1 hour, 42 minutes
Review:
This is by the same author who wrote "The Princess and the Goblin" but while that one had a kind of dreamlike quality to it, I think this one had more of a sense of urgency. At least it did for me...
It's about this boy named Colin and he's kinda the homemaker in his household, since his mom died. He doesn't have a lot to do, so he does this little project where he re-directs a stream that goes into the poopy cow pasture...into his house.
But, like, the water's clean (since it's not going through cow poop anymore) and I guess it doesn't affect he house's structural stability because his dad doesn't really make a big deal out of it: He's just like "You are a very strange child, I am now questioning my parenting choices...but as long as it keeps you happy..."
The stream-diversion scheme has a much bigger impact on the faeries that happen to live there. They are appropriately grateful to him for making it so they don't have to live in poop water anymore. And they want to give him a gift to show their appreciation.
On his first interaction with the faeries, Colin meets a changeling: a little human girl who was kidnapped at birth and is like a servant to the faerie queen, and he decides to request her freedom as his reward for helping the faeries out of the stinky situation.
Unfortunately, the faeries are just not very nice people...they only care about keeping their word if it won't inconvenience them in anyway and they don't want to loose their slave so they offer a counter-proposal: if Colin brings her a cask of Carasoyn ('The wine that makes people happy') the faerie queen will give him the changeling girl.
And that is the main struggle for our protagonist: figuring out how to create happiness, bottling it, and finally deliver it to the faeries.
Even though it's a short story, the process seems so arduous that there are some points where you feel like: "This is obviously supposed to be an impossible task..."
But it isn't!
It's time consuming, labor-intensive; it requires a collaborative effort and know-how...but it can be done!
And fortunately Colin, who's is a problem-solver, always looking for solutions and ways to do things better...is just the type of guy for the job.
This story also has a kind of sequel in the second half, that takes place some years later: it's kind of like a "The Revenge of the Faeries" type thing...I think a lot of people who read this might think that it's a little repetitive, but I really liked it. Because first time, he's just trying to help another kid and it shows us what decent human being he is. The second time around though, the stakes are a little more personal and I loved watching him actually get to outsmart the faeries this time.
Rating: 4/5 Stars.
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