The Boy with the Cuckoo Clock Heart

A few books ago I posted a review of The Little Prince for Beware of the Froggies’ “We Want You To Read French Authors” challenge.  My goal for this challenge was a paltry ONE title, and with this addition of The Boy with the Cuckoo Clock Heart.  I have officially surpassed my goal by 100%.  I chose this title solely because the title sounded fun and it was available as an audiobook from my library.  At the risk of spoiling my review I’ll just mention that participating in this challenge has been a good experience anyway, but after finding this one I’ll definitely be back for another round if they choose to make it an annual affair.

Note:  Lyra just reviewed this one too and it wasn’t necessarily her cup of tea so if it turns out that I sound like an idiot, check her review here.

Stats

The Boy with the Cuckoo Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu

Audiobook read by Jim Dale

Published in 2010

Got it from: Public Library

4h 53m

On the coldest day on earth a baby was born to a mother who could not keep him.  That day was so cold that birds fell from the sky and baby Jack’s heart is frozen solid.  Jack’s midwife, Madeleine, was luckily experienced in non-traditional medicine and was able to graft a cuckoo clock into his heart which would keep his blood pumping and allow him to see that the world wasn’t always so cold.

The advice of our parents

While his operation is the very thing that saves his life, the rest of little Jack’s life is haunted by his cuckoo clock heart.  Physically – audibly rather – it ticks and tocks, chimes and cuckoo’s at the most inopportune times.  Emotionally because of the ill-timed warning Madeleine gives him to never fall in love immediately after he had just seen the most beautiful girl in the world, Miss Acacia, a dancer from Andalucia.

As with most children who have just received the most important word of advice from a parent, Jack promptly does the opposite and acquiesces to the supposed perils of love.  He just couldn’t help it even if it kills him.

It was pretty easy to fall in love with little Jack from the start and it was made even easier when he sets out to find his love (a quest that eventually leads him across Europe).  The gusto with which he approaches love for the first time, regardless of the possible effects was endearing but also terrifying whenever his cuckoo objects or threatens peril.

TBCCH is a love story that is alternatively cautionary, celebratory and sometimes quite gruesome or sad but despite what is actually a pretty unlikely story, it was precisely that sporadic and confused take on love that made it all the more believable and…realistic.

Malzieu’s poetry

I don’t think this book would have worked if Malzieu’s prose wasn’t such a darkly beautiful poetry.  As Lyra pointed out in her review, the whole thing conveys the feeling you are inside a Tim Burton film.  A beautiful, hyper-stylized, playful kind of scary.  I haven’t always loved Tim Burton’s films so it wasn’t necessarily a given that I would become so enthralled, but man if this didn’t work.  As for myself, I was making pretty strong connections to Carnivàle while listening, but I think both comparisons work pretty well.

Recommendation

My experience with magical realism is limited to section of a Latin American Humanities course in college.  Limited as it may be, my experience with magical realism has also been thoroughly enjoyable and after listening to TBCCH, nothing has changed. 

It was a fairly quick “read”, but it was painfully entertaining.  This would be a great one to curl up with before bed.  Or, if you’re like me and need some aural entertainment, Jim Dale kills this one so don’t be afraid to check out the audiobook.

A Hamster Named Cunnilingus

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The Little Prince

A while ago, I mentioned that I put my name in the hat for the French authors Challenge over at Beware of the Froggies.  My goal was to finish just one review, though now that I’ve finished, I’ve got another in the works, so it looks like I’ll be surpassing my original goal.  Anyway, my first book is The Little Prince by Antoine de St. Exupéry, which is apparently one of the most translated books from French into English ever.  I had never heard of it before this challenge, which probably means I’m just a disconnected lump.  Anyway, without further ado.

Stats

The Little Prince written and illustrated by Antoine de St. Exupéry

Published in 1943

Got it from: The Library’s Juvenile Section

83 pages

As a boy, he grew up feeling unable to connect with adults.  As a man he becomes a pilot and forgets how silly adults can be.  After a crash landing in the deserts of Africa, he meets a mysterious and insightful little boy from the stars.

The boy, the man

Ostensibly, this story is about a boy who helps a man remember childhood and teaches him to take himself both more and less seriously.  He reminds him of himself and reminds him that there is more to life than philosophy and numbers and politics and that his younger self was right about some things.  This part of the story is fun.  I don’t know that I necessarily saw the world this way when I was young, but I do remember thinking that adults just didn’t understand about important things.  I’m sure we all felt that way.  This part of the story reminded me of that time and it felt good.

But the other part of the story is that the boy learns something too.  I think his discussions with the man and the telling of his travels gave him perspective.  When he lived on his asteroid, he was unaware of all the other beauty in the world and when he finally discovered it, he realized an even deeper beauty back home; “The stars are beautiful because of a flower you don’t see…”

The words, the pictures

The innocent wisdom of the boy that is portrayed so magnificently in words is channeled directly in the illustrations.  Watercolors and simple designs portray the essence of the boy perfectly.  The incorporation of the pictures throughout the actual text, made it read almost like a graphic novel, both the words and pictures simultaneously.

One of my (many) favorite pages

In the beginning, I didn’t really love them, but they very quickly grew on me.  Their effect was twofold making the boy, his home, his flower and then sheep look as innocent and honest as they sounded and they made some of the more silly adults look even sillier.  At first, I thought they might be either cutesy and boring or pretentious and flat.  In the end they felt natural and augmented the story, further cementing my curiosity about the boy and later my attachment to him.  All in all, I think it was a better book for them.

Recommendation

This is one of those children’s books that are intended just as much for adults as children.  I imagine that children might get as much out of it as adults too, though I wonder if it might be too sad in the end (I guess it was sad for me too though).  The story is simple and the illustrations too, and that is precisely TLP’s charm.  It isn’t perfect but it’s fun and sweet and asks you to question your outlook on life and you can get it from the kids section in the library.  I don’t know about you, but I love it when I find something fun there.  For one thing, it’s close to the puzzles where my daughter plays and also I just like to make my way all around the library.