Book Review: Alice Through the Needle's Eye by Gilbert Adair

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Fun story that captures the spirit of the earlier Alice books

Cons: Writing style a little too complex at times

The Bottom Line:

Third tale for Alice

Filled with more fun and nonsense

Makes for a fun read

Lewis Carroll Couldn't Have Created a Better Third Adventure for Alice

I was browsing the library one day as a kid and stumbled upon Alice Through the Needle's Eye.  Since I had just finished Lewis Carroll's two tales about Alice, I thought I'd give this third tale, written by Gilbert Adair, a chance.  With my recent Alice in Wonderland kick, I decided to revisit the book.  It's just as good as I remember it being.

It's a cozy winter's day, and Alice is sitting by a warm fire attempting to thread a needle.  As she puts the needle close to her eye to better perform that task, she suddenly sees an entire world inside the needle's eye, and before she knows it, she is falling.

Fortunately, she lands on a hay stack.  Or should I say A stack since what she thought were wisps of hay are really strands of A's clinging together.  As she begins to explore this new world, she discovers spelling bees, meets a grampus who has written his auto-biography in advance and works hard to make sure it comes true, meets Jack and Jill, and gets lost in a-maze-ment.  Will she ever find her way home?

If you've enjoyed either of Lewis Carroll's classic tales, you'll definitely enjoy this one as well.  It has the same level of the absurd and surreal.  You can't help but laugh as some of the creatures that Alice meets along the way.  Plus there are a couple of nods to the original books, making this a nice homage in every sense of the world.

Quite a few times, Mr. Adair used word play to add some humor to the events.  As a lover of this, I really enjoyed those moments.  Overall, there seemed to be a more humorous bent to the book than the originals.  Maybe it's because this book was written in 1985, so I catch the jokes more than I do something that was written over 100 years before that.

The book has two or three illustrations per chapter done by Jenny Thorne.  Her efforts deserve praise as well for capturing the flavor of the original illustrations almost perfectly.  Yes, she does put some small personal touches in, but at a quick glance, you'd think the original illustrator did the pictures here.

My only complaint is the writing style.  Mr. Adair does a good job most of the time capturing the flavor of Lewis Carroll's writing.  However, he seems to put in too many mid-sentence asides.  Used sparingly, they would capture the writing of the originals.  Over used like they are here, they distract more than help the feel of the story.

Alice Through the Needle's Eye may not be an official Alice adventure, but it has been lovingly created to capture the feel of those classic stories.  Anyone who loves Alice will be glad they took the time to track this volume down.