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Holes
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From: Steven
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 11:20:19 PST
Can someone explain the fantasy elements of "Holes" that have been mentioned a few times? I've read it twice and apparently missed something important. Yes, there are coincidences and unlikely events, plus a very effective curse, but isn't everything in the book really possible in the world as we know it? That was one of the joys of the book to me, the way everything fit together without any
"magic" beyond that of a very clever storyteller. And speaking of the storyteller, I always thought Louis Sachar was a good candidate for "least likely to win a Newbery Award" until
"Holes." His Wayside books are uniquely funny, and I've enjoyed some of his more serious books for older readers, but never dreamed he had a book like this in him. It's another way his book is similar to Spinelli's "Maniac Magee," which also seemed like a huge leap from what he'd written up till then.
---------------------------------------------------------Steven Engelfried, West Linn Public Library 1595 Burns Street West Linn, OR 97068 phone: 503e6x57 fax: 503e6'46 e-mail: steven at westlinn.lib.or.us
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Received on Wed 17 Feb 1999 01:20:19 PM CST
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 11:20:19 PST
Can someone explain the fantasy elements of "Holes" that have been mentioned a few times? I've read it twice and apparently missed something important. Yes, there are coincidences and unlikely events, plus a very effective curse, but isn't everything in the book really possible in the world as we know it? That was one of the joys of the book to me, the way everything fit together without any
"magic" beyond that of a very clever storyteller. And speaking of the storyteller, I always thought Louis Sachar was a good candidate for "least likely to win a Newbery Award" until
"Holes." His Wayside books are uniquely funny, and I've enjoyed some of his more serious books for older readers, but never dreamed he had a book like this in him. It's another way his book is similar to Spinelli's "Maniac Magee," which also seemed like a huge leap from what he'd written up till then.
---------------------------------------------------------Steven Engelfried, West Linn Public Library 1595 Burns Street West Linn, OR 97068 phone: 503e6x57 fax: 503e6'46 e-mail: steven at westlinn.lib.or.us
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Received on Wed 17 Feb 1999 01:20:19 PM CST
