Into the Wardrobe

I am currently reading this book. It is called "The Magician's Book: a Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia," by Laura Miller, who is a critic for salon.com and occasionally writes for the NY Times. The title refers to the part in "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" where Lucy reads the story that works on her like a spell: she forgets she's reading and the story seems to her the most wonderful she has ever read in her life, but when she is finished she can't remember what it was about and she can't turn back the pages to read it again. The author contends that many passionate readers have a book that also worked a spell on them in their childhoods, and that since then, as they age, they have been searching in vain for another reading experience that powerful and magical. For her, it was the Chronicles of Narnia, but, being a skeptic from an early age, when she learns they are written as Christian fables she turns against them, feeling "betrayed." Now, after many years have passed, she is revisiting her childhood favorites and rediscovering what she loved about them.

I'm still reading the book, so I can't give a full opinion of it, but it is enjoyable so far, though it is not a weighty work, at 300 pages and written in a journalistic style. There are no endnotes or references. At one point she refers to A. N. Wilson as Lewis' "most distinguished" biographer; perhaps she relies mostly on his work for her research. But it is an interesting read, especially to hear a thoughtful account of what a non-believing fan loves about the Chronicles.

There's a review by one of the Narniaweb moderators, on a website. She wasn't exactly impressed.

She strikes me as very angry... not the best way to present an argument!