Book Review – Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Probably most people’s first encounters with this story is going to be the Disney animated version. What classic Disney tended to do, I believe, is take the good parts of the original stories they made into movies and add good movie elements into them. So with this book, you’re going to be familiar with a number of elements you’ve seen in the movie but the focus is on the writing prose.

What Barrie does well in his prose is make everything dream-like and fantasy-clouded. Wendy and the Darling children bring the reader to where they have a shared platform of reality and eventually sink into the dreamlike state of Neverland as they get lost in the world as well. I was pleased with how funny the book started off, especially Mr. Darling being as comical as he was. I found myself laughing out loud at some of his antics at the beginning and it set the stage well. Peter is a younger boy than probably what you expect, but he and the Lost Boys share a good juxtaposition with an older Wendy on the cusp of starting her journey into womanhood. I believe the book might help younger girls see how younger boys think differently from them and vice versa. Elements of Tinkerbell can also show the meanness of girls and the jealousy that boys might not realize what they’re seeing or even young girls not understanding why former friends are acting more catty – but boy, is Tinkerbell just mean in this version.

Overall, however, I believe the dreamlike, fantasy aspect of the world was a bit lost on me and grew old. I doubt you’ll be able to draw direct parallels like Captain Hook representing the id or the Native tribe being the maturity of once savage children grown up. And that tended to be a disconnect for me. Barrie’s writing is good and it all feels flowy and part of the characters established. However, I was lost as to why the story was going where it did, and up to the concluding chapters it just seemed like elements were happening. I usually take the blame for these types of shortsighted aspects and figure I’m just not smart enough to find the parallels. The story is a classic for reasons apart from Disney’s tie-in, but I feel like a part of it is lost on me.

This is a good book to read with children and it would be fun to see what young children’s takes are of this. It was just a little lost on me. Maybe I was a bit too grown up.