Forgotten Classics: “Alice Through the Needle’s Eye”

September 22, 2008 at 6:21 pm | Posted in Children's Book, Fiction, Forgotten Classics | 2 Comments

This book came to my attention when I had just discovered the adult fiction section of the library and sincerely believed I could read through it all if I simply started at the A’s and kept going.  Right there at the beginning of the aisle was Adair, G., and… an Alice book!  I was instantly suspicious, even at age 12, that one author could dare appropriate another author’s characters.  And that was before I ever saw any “fan fiction.”  But Alice in Wonderland was the first chapter book I ever loved, and I had to find out if this interloper could stand beside the genuine article.

I am happy to report that Alice Through the Needle’s Eye was entirely convincing.  If someone had given it to me with the author’s name scratched off, I would have believed it to be Lewis Carroll’s work.  Gilbert Adair knows the rules of Wonderland.  The book has enough charm and whimsy that we could wish he had followed it up with another.  (And it looks like he did do a Peter Pan story, though I haven’t seen it).  I would recommend it for anyone who loves Alice, regardless of age.