A Reading Vocation

Although this was a lovely way to revisit the story of "The Last Unicorn" (so lovely, in fact, that I felt compelled to reread the original), the storytelling felt a little fragmented, and I wondered if it might be hard to follow if I didn't already know the story so well. Much of Beagle's original, poetic language is retained, and the illustrations, while skewing too close to the animated version at times, are still nothing less than gorgeous. The little rabbit on the last page is an especially nice touch.

"As for you and your heart and the things you said and didn't say, she will remember them all when men are fairy tales in books written by rabbits."

I like that it retains elements of the story scrapped in the film, but I still think the original book or the film are better ways to be introduced to the story. Still, this is a worthy addition to any Last-Unicorn fan's collection, and I hope it will bring a new generation of readers to this beautiful story.

(If you have good eyes or a magnifying glass, the teeny print interview with Peter S. Beagle at the end is pretty interesting, although it totally depressed me to know he wrote TLU when he was in his twenties.)