Absolutely Alice.

My book group read Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, in honor of the new Tim Burton movie that has just come out. Incredibly (to me), several of our members had never read them. Seriously, how could anyone make it through childhood without reading them? Personally, they were amongst my favorite books in my younger years (the rest are for another post).

I had a boxed set of 33 1/3 rpm records of the great Cyril Ritchard reading AAiW, which had a hardcover copy of the book with Sir John Tenniel's illustrations. I knew that I listened to it a lot as a kid; but I had no idea how much, really, until I pulled them out about ten years ago to transfer them to CD, only to discover that I had literally worn them out with listening. I recently bought the mp3 from iTunes, and decided that it was time to introduce Rainer to Alice. So one day recently, while we were painting Lord of the Rings minis, we listened. I was thrilled when Rainer started chuckling, then cackling. We listened to the whole thing in one sitting. And I discovered that I remembered every musical cue, every rise and fall of his voice, every change in timbre. I loved it all over again. (I am determined to find his recording of Through the Looking Glass on mp3, too....)

Anyway. I was truly surprised when several of the folks in our group said that they disliked the book. I suppose I shouldn't have been, since everyone's taste is different; but since it was such a large part of my childhood, and so universal, it truly took me aback to hear their criticisms.

The most universal one was that they couldn't connect to Alice as a character; that they didn't care about her, she didn't develop. My answer to that was that the books were written as stories told to a small child as we would tell bedtime stories: what happens *to* them, not about them. That didn't cut it. The other complaint, which I answered with the same argument, was that there was no discernible plot. Heck, that just never bothered me. :)

I hear some not-so-good things about the new movie. I will go anyway, though, partially to vet it for Rainer who is concerned that it might be too intense for him, and partially for me, simply because it's Alice.