There and Back Again!
Picked this up on a whim at Wal-Mart. I'd never read any Tolkien before this. I'd seen the first Lord of the Rings movie and some of the second, and liked them, but I wasn't exactly wowed. I guess my main aversion to Tolkien has always been the same as my main aversion to almost all sci-fi and fantasy literature and film in existence: that, aside from humans, all races are either 100% good or 100% evil. Example, hobbits are 100% good whereas goblins are 100% evil. This just annoys me and turns me off from a lot of "high fantasy" and lots of sci-fi as well.
Anyway, as for The Hobbit itself as a novel, I have to say, I was both underwhelmed and impressed at the same time. Having finished it, I was left with two distinct, seemingly incompatible impressions. Firstly, I didn't get how it had become regarded as such a great literary classic. It was good, I reasoned, but not great. Just a basic adventure story. And a little repetitive in its descriptions sometimes, and overall just chock with too many characters when, besides Bilbo, Gandalf and Thorin, they're all essentially just fodder, all basically the same guy with identical personalities (except for Bombur), with the only differences being their names.
The adventure itself was also very episodic. Which is fine I guess, but it left me wondering whether Tolkien was just killing time to fill out the book before getting to Smaug. And the ending was somewhat anti-climactic after all of the buildup.
There's also the distasteful revelation of what Beorn did with the goblin and warg he caught (killing prisoners makes him better than the evil goblins how?).
Now, you might be wondering, why did I rate it so high if I have so complaints about it? Well, my friends, just because something isn't perfect doesn't mean I didn't thoroughly enjoy myself while reading it. As I said, I don't get how or why this became such a literary classic, but, for what it is, a fun adventure story, it's pretty great. It's funny and has a lot of tongue-in-cheek moments. Tolkien does comical stuff quite well, in a very deadpan way. The character of Bilbo was also very endearing and easy to identify with, and I liked how clever he was in figuring out problems using cunning and intelligence instead of fighting skills or strength.
And, randomly, I liked the explanation given for Gollum's name, "Gollum" being the closest verbal approximation to a particular compulsive swallowing noise he makes. Very gross and creepy.
All in all, despite my complaints above, I did really like this book, so much so that I got a second copy as a "backup" in case something befalls my first. I even sought out and enjoyed the animated Rankin-Bass film (I actually liked its Gollum better than Andy Serkis') and am looking forward to the new movie version of it coming out soon too.
So, good book, loved it, please don't hate me for finding faults with it 'cause I did honestly enjoy it. :)Read full review
