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Categories: Science fiction Fantasy Mystery Romance Business Classic Sports Young adult Humor Memoirs See all categories... |
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Categories: Science fiction Fantasy Mystery Romance Business Classic Sports Young adult Humor Memoirs See all categories... |
I bought this book new back in the early 80's, and have read it a few times since then. I mostly enjoy the story, even if it does seem a bit simplistic to me these days. How many times have we seen the device of 'I found this manuscript and translated it in order to share its secrets with the world'? Michael Green uses a variation of this here when he declares that he received a letter telling him he was the most qualified person to share the 'history and truth of the unicorn' with the world.The book is a charming fantasy about a monk who learns this very history and writes it down, illustrating it with delicate drawings that have not lost their appeal for me in the 30 years or so that I have owned the book. I looked at some other reviews after I finished reading, and I have to agree with nearly everyone: the illustrations are the heart of the book. The story is okay, but the drawings are stunning.I did like the imagination shown by some of the details about the unicorn: their very favorite places to live are the magical spaces behind waterfalls; there are actually seven different types of unicorn (some tiny ones that are only visible to children); all unicorns have blue eyes; and a unicorn never thinks of himself as A Unicorn: "...he knows himself to be a Spirit, who tarries as a Unicorn." I like that phrase.I also liked the idea that a unicorn loves to play in storms because they remind him of the forces that came together to give him life. Perhaps that is the real reason the unicorn missed getting aboard Noah's Ark? In the old song by The Irish Rovers, the unicorns were playing in the storm and Noah couldn't wait for them any longer, he closed up the Ark and sailed away. And that is why we don't see any unicorns to this very day.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EPsu...