Diabolical Book Club #4: The Last Unicorn
“Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale.”
~Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
The film version of The Last Unicorn had a profound impact on me as a child. As a small child I was terrified of the red bull (alas, that phrase is now associated with a shitty energy drink).
Later in life I read Peter S. Beagle’s novel upon which the film is based. It remains one of the best novels—fantasy or otherwise—that I have ever read, with some of the most beautiful prose you will encounter in any book. It is poetic and sad, hauntingly lovely and deeply thought-provoking, filled with a wonderful cast of misfits and dreamers.
I haven’t read The Last Unicorn in many, many years but it’s time, I think, to join Schmendrick the Magician, Molly Grue the believer, and the cruel old bastard King Haggard once again.
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The last three books we’ve read in the diabolical book club have all leaned toward science fiction. A Clockwork Orange is a work of dystopian fiction; Starship Troopers is mostly a military story with some sci-fi trappings and a lot of pontificating on what benign fascism would look like, which is more than a little troubling since it’s a Utopian novel; and then Dune, which is basically a space opera.
The Last Unicorn is pure fantasy, a fable really, a fairy tale. It’s much, much shorter than the other three, and a very easy read, though “easy” isn’t what makes it so wonderful. It’s a story about magic, about love and loss and sacrifice, and about what it means to be human. It should make for some excellent book club discussions!
If you haven’t read The Lat Unicorn yet, I’m excited for you to enjoy it for the first time! Pick it up at your local bookstore or on Amazon and let’s get to reading . . . .
Here’s how the novel opens. Tell me the last time you read such a winsomely beautiful passage:
“The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea.”
As always, we will conclude the book club by watching the film upon which the book was based. The book is better, no doubt, but the animated film is a classic in its own right (and has a surprisingly star-studded cast).
P.S. I am also reading Leviathan Falls, the final Expanse novel and will have a review closer to that book’s release on November 30th, 2021. Very exciting! If you haven’t read the James S.A. Corey novels and only watch the show, please do yourself a favor and get reading…