the Little Prince

This book, apparently* an incredibly-widely-loved classic by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - is one I didn't really know what to expect from other than probably a child-friendly tale with a vaguely uplifting message. It was exactly that, in the purest and most gorgeous form I've read in a long time - it is clear why this book is so massively beloved. It's about a pilot who has crash-landed in the Sahara Desert, and while trying to fix his engine, makes friends with a little dude who claims to be the prince from a really small planet far away. The prince asks questions, induces a roaring campfire of penetrative conversation about what really matters in life (clue: what is beautiful), and tells the pilot stories of some of the other tiny planets he's visited out there, and the somewhat-zany yet profound and poignant characters who live on them - and of course, he tells of how he came to Earth, and found it so much larger and emptier and lonelier than these other planets, but eventually settles upon learning things that help him appreciate timeless truth and beauty wherever he is. It is a story about uniqueness, about enjoying - nay, loving - life to the full, about the rampant absurdities that grown-ups, irrationally and inexorably, force upon themselves and children much to the efficient collective productivity of society at large but at the real cost of hampering our childlike ways of thinking about things that can truly make them still seem magic, unique, beautiful, wild and free. I don't know. It's pretty flipping magical. Tears may well up. Also it's got lovely simple little illustrations by the author. That's all I can be bothered to write as it's late and I've just read this in one sitting and I have to get up early to go to the library tomorrow** to continue speed-reading loads of political theory and stuff and while I do love my subject it's never as magical reading non-fiction as something like this. If you know anyone under the age of thirteen buy them a copy of this and read it to them because childhood is magical and grown-ups are pretty good at making the world suck - and the general thrust of this book's core message, I think, treads a pretty good line at compromise-guiding how we can emerge into the real grown-up world without losing our sense of wonder at the sheer unfettered majesty of life itself and all that is beautiful.

* Have a look at Wikipedia's list of best-selling books; this was the only place I'd ever heard of it before. It's apparently super popular in continental Europe, and we English-speakers just tend not to get as excited about things that have to have been translated. Like, I didn't even ever particularly intend to acquire or read this - a German family who have been staying at my parents' house left it to us and I saw it on the arm of the sofa and thought 'hey, if I remember rightly, that's on the Wikipedia list of worldwide all-time best-selling books, and it's pretty short, why not?' ~ and am glad I did.

** Well okay, today.***

*** Happy 4th of July, if you're American, or just anyone else who may care.