It’s Thursday and you know what that means…another edition of Booking Through Thursday is here.

This week’s question is: Which do you prefer? Lurid, fruity prose, awash in imagery and sensuous textures and colors? Or straight-forward, clean, simple prose?

Florid or unadorned prose? It’s a difficult decision to make if you enjoy both. But, my preference often depends upon mood and whether said florid prose shifts into the realm of purple and whether the unadorned prose is so sparse as to remove all color.

Two good examples to illustrate my point are The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (review) and I heart you, You haunt me by Lisa Schroeder (review). (Bet you thought I was going to say Shakespeare and Hemmingway, didn’t you?) I enjoyed both of these books although the former was especially florid:

The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea.

While the latter was spare in its language:

I pull out the bikini.
The one Jackson bought me.
The one I wore that day.

I can’t wear it.
I won’t wear it.
Never
ever
again.

I should throw it away.
But Jackson gave it to me.
It’s the last thing he gave me.
So I’ll keep it.
But I won’t wear it.

To me, it all boils down to deftness of the writer and whether I’m in the mood to savor a book or devour it.

Back Cover of The Last Unicorn

The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone…

…so she ventured out from the safety of the enchanted forest on a quest for others of her kind. Joined along the way by the bumbling magician Schmendrick and the indomitable Molly Grue, the unicorn learns all about the joys and sorrows of life and love before meeting her destiny in the castle of the despondent monarch—and confronting the creature that would drive her kind to extinction.

Three Quick Points About The Last Unicorn

• Point 1: Nature plays a large role. The textures, the aromas, and the sounds all center around the things that grow and thrive in nature; shifting from air to sea to fire to earth to metal, and sometimes intermingling.
• Point 2: The unicorn is rather vain, but in such a way that her vanity seems justified. Throughout the text we’re reminded that the unicorn is the most beautiful creature, much of which is her own musing, and when she’s turned human, she’s incredibly distraught because she’s mortal and dying, and therefore no longer beautiful.
• Point 3: This book is a musical without the sheet music. If anyone had any doubts that Mr. Beagle enjoys writing lyrics, hand them this book. Just about everyone sings something at some point, ranging from the silly and nonsensical to the melancholy.

Full Review of The Last Unicorn

Before reading the full review, please note that there may be some spoilers. I tried to keep it vague enough not to spoil the entire story, but be warned. If you’d rather not take any chances, skip the synopsis and go straight to the final thoughts.

The Last Unicorn Synopsis

A unicorn residing in a lilac wood overhears two huntsmen one day discussing the existence of unicorns. When the unicorn learns that she’s the last of her kind, she decides to find out for herself and embarks on a journey to find her kin.

She travels for many days and nights without any sight of other unicorns. When she comes in contact with humans, they all look at her and see a horse. In other words, men have forgotten unicorns and that gives her hope—maybe the unicorns do still exist, but since the men can no longer see them, they assume they are no more.

After meeting a dizzy butterfly, she learns that her hopes were mislaid. In a roundabout way, the butterfly tells her about the Red Bull which drove all the unicorns away. But where? And are they still alive?

Then one night, the unicorn is captured and placed in Mama Fortuna’s traveling sideshow of mystical creatures. However, the animals in the carnival are not what they appear to be, except one (not including the unicorn). While in captivity, the unicorn learns from Mommy Fortuna that King Haggard controls the Red Bull. The unicorn also meets a magician named Schmendrick who later helps set her free. As repayment, he asks to come with her and reluctantly she agrees.

Along the way, Schmendrick is captured by a bungling group of thieves and it’s where he meets Molly Grue. Molly, having seen the unicorn (who helped rescue Schmendrick), basically invites herself on the quest and they continue the journey to find the Red Bull and find out what truly happened to the other unicorns.

After some travel, they come across King Haggard’s domain. It’s fruitless and desolate, but one town is prosperous. In that town, called Hagsgate, they learn the legend and prophecy of King Haggard’s castle.

When they set out from Hagsgate toward the castle, that’s when the Red Bull strikes for the first time. In a fit of panic, Schmendrick summons up his magic and begs it to do as it will and its will was to turn the unicorn into a human girl. The new form allowed the unicorn to continue on to the castle without being further bothered by the bull, since it was only seeking out unicorns.

At the castle, the unicorn is introduced as Lady Amalthea and she quickly steals Prince Lir’s heart. Over time, she begins to forget who she once was and her mission altogether, so when the king confronts her about being a unicorn, and tells her where they are, she truly has no idea what he’s talking about—in fact, she’s trying to avoid it altogether. With time running out, Schmendrick and Molly turn up the heat on their mission.

This all leads to the lair of the Red Bull where Prince Lir and Lady Almathea must fulfill their individual destinies, though heartbreaking.

Final Thoughts On The Last Unicorn

If you have no patience for florid language and sometimes overly abstract descriptions, then this is not the book for you. Mr. Beagle loves his similes and adjectives and adverbs; nearly every sentence is rife with them. In any other story, I’d probably admonish the author, but for The Last Unicorn, it works. It brightened up the narration, even in the dreariest of passages (and there were some dreary passages).

From the very first page, I was sucked into the fairytale, into a completely different world possibly long ago or existing parallel to this one. Who truly knows? What I do know is that I felt as though I were standing right next to the unicorn throughout her entire journey and meeting the same creatures and people that she did and escaping from the same dangers. In other words, the story felt real. Intellectually I knew the story was fiction, but deep inside, in a place that’s usually lost to age, it was completely believable.

Each character was built with a perfect balance of strength and weakness. For instance, the unicorn is vain. In the beginning, the vanity seems justified to an extent, but when she’s transformed into the Lady Amalthea who now has human emotions and desires, that justifiable vanity becomes arrogance, mainly to disguise her fear. Schmendrick was a good-natured bungling wizard who occasionally had an off day. It was the off days that made his character incredibly relatable. And the indomitable Molly Grue, the voice of cool reason and support. Together the characters all complimented each other well.

The story had a nice flow, though I will admit some parts tended to slow down, but it wasn’t so bad that I could put the book down and never want to pick it up again. The opposite, actually. Those sections gave me a breather so I could put the book down for the night get some rest and come back to it another day. Frankly, I was glad that the book took a little longer than usual to read because I wanted to prolong the story. Even when it ended I felt a little sad because I wanted to continue on with each character on their journeys.

Rating: Worth Every Penny (?)

Get The Last Unicorn at Amazon

* I watched the DVD after I finished the book and was surprised at how much was taken out. Despite removing some scenes and changing a few of the characters slightly, the movie still worked and was still as captivating as the first time I watched it.

Childhood, it’s a place we’ve all been at one time or another, where anything is possible and there’s usually that one (or possibly two or three) story that is its cornerstone.

Yesterday, I went on a mini-adventure as I was perusing the aisles of Amazon. I went through the usual adult fare, plucking out titles and covers I thought sounded or looked interesting. My shopping list grew, as usual. But before I clicked on the purchase button, I did something unexpected…I typed in the word unicorns.

Why unicorns? Truly, I have no idea, but the results were a time machine pulling me back some 20 years. Waves of emotion came over me as I scrolled down to learn that The Last Unicorn was a book penned by Peter S. Beagle*.

As a child, I saw the movie. It was raw, and disturbing, and beguiling. The movie helped nourish my imagination and it created a cozy home in my heart for all these years.

It was by fate that the movie came on television again so I could record it on VHS tape and I watched it over and over again. Then, when I was older, I purchased the actual VHS tape and watched that over and over. (In fact, I still have it.)

There was some great joy in discovering that one of my all time favorite children’s movies was based on a written fairytale and well-crafted in the traditional style based on the snippets I was able to read at Amazon. Without hesitation, I added the book to my shopping cart and can hardly wait for it to arrive so I can immerse myself in that fantastic world where enchanting unicorns, clumsy wizards, bare-breasted harpies, crotchety kings, hapless princes, dizzy butterflies, frightening red bulls, and epic journeys for truth, honor, and love still exist.

So, take some time today and rediscover your childhood. Was there a movie that moved you, inspired you, or just somehow made a home in your heart when you were young? Then maybe today is a good day to go searching for the book so you can enjoy it in a different way. (And if it’s not based on a book? Well, pop in the VHS/DVD and imagine what it would say and how it would read if one were to be written.)

* On my journey, I discovered that there was a ruckus about the original DVD release (in 2004) and the 25^th anniversary release (in 2007). It seems that the 2004 version was little more than a steaming pile of <insert expletive here> in terms of quality, but the 2007 version which was the product of much prodding is all around better. Unfortunately, Mr. Beagle receives no revenue from its sales. So, if you’d like to purchase the new DVD and would like Mr. Beagle to receive some proceeds, then order it from the Conlan Press website.