A Peak in Darien
'The advantage that children's fiction has over other types of writing is its near irresistible appeal to the reader to identify directly with its characters.' (Colin Burrow in London Review of Books 21/1/21) I was reading Burrow's review of two books, one by Ursula Le Guin and the other a collection of interviews and conversations with her, when this sentence brought me up short. Why had I never thought of this? It explains so much about my approach to reading. When I was a child I always read at night, long after I was supposed to be asleep, and when I did finish a book and close my eyes I would carry on the action in my head, I would be one of the characters, be a part of their adventures, imagine new ones. My involvement was total. One of Le Guin's later additions to the Earthsea trilogy. Those who identified with Sparrowhawk, the wizard of the earlier books, were in for a shock. As Burrow says 'always in Le Guin there is a sharp ironical turn against any...