Not perfect, but worth the wait
Despite a careening second half, La Belle Sauvage an enjoyable read
La Belle Sauvage was OTTAWA worth every second of the 17-year wait.
The tome, the first of three new books in The Book of Dust, returns readers to the world Philip Pullman created with His Dark Materials, the epic trilogy featuring the feisty Lyra Belacqua as heroine, joined by sidekick and eventual lover, Will Parry.
La Belle Sauvage is familiar territory. The slightly askew world features “anbaric” lamps instead of electric; daemons (the soulas-changeling-animals are ever present); and tantalizing glimpses of Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel — foundational characters in the original trilogy.
Then, there are the fantasy creatures, sinister villains, murderous violence and the haunting presence of religion. In it, Malcolm Polstead and Alice Parslow rescue the baby Lyra and head off during a major flood (inspired by Pullman’s experience with a flood as a child in Australia) to deliver her to safety.
The essence of these four books, what makes them resonate so strongly with young readers, is that for the characters, two fundamental problems of childhood are solved. Every kid wishes their life were more adventurous than it is — and they wish they could be stronger and tougher than an adult.
But to be the child, as Lyra is, replicating the fall of Eve but with knowledge as a blessing, not a curse, is unbelievably ambitious.
And in La Belle Sauvage, it’s two kids fighting off and fleeing a ghastly villain to save this hero — it’s darker than the originals. Alice and Malcolm murder their pursuer, Gerard Bonneville. That said, the death of a beloved character (heart-rending in the first three) is conspicuously absent.
That part of growing up has not yet arrived for Malcolm and Alice.
The second piece of the magic, unmatched elsewhere — consciously or not by Pullman — is steeped in the knowledge that growing up can be lonely.
For anyone in the His Dark Materials universe, they are never alone. In all of life, the children and adults in this alter-world have a constant companion in their daemon, which as a kid changes shape but settles into a reflection of personality around puberty. They talk, share a bond with their human, and the two are one person.
La Belle Sauvage works perfectly in the first half.
Malcolm and his daemon Asta are a sweet combination; they’re offset by the horrors of a three-legged demonic hyena who’s latched to a ruthless sexual predator. The second half careens along as chaotically as our protagonists’ journey — deliberate maybe — but it does feel a bit unmoored.
Pullman has said he regrets not having more time to polish The Amber Spyglass, a problem he didn’t have this time, but La Belle Sauvage has the feel of an author rushing to cram in too many ideas in too short a space.
That said, it’s an awful feeling coming to the end. tdawson@postmedia.com