bilbopooh's Full Review: David Benedictus - Return to the Hundred Acre Wood
"Pooh, promise you won't forget about me, ever. Not even when I'm a hundred." So entreats Christopher Robin in the final chapter of The House at Pooh Corner. Eighty years have now passed since A. A. Milne penned that stirring plea, and David Benedictus has taken it upon himself to see that this promise is honored, at least after a fashion. For us, Christopher Robin is closing in on a century, but for the residents of the Hundred Acre Wood, he's only been gone a few months. Time has little meaning in the Wood, its chief measure being changes to the lad Pooh and his friends love so dearly. For both dragons and Pooh Bears live forever, but not so little boys. He may be doing it slowly, but Christopher Robin is growing up. This reality sets a wistful tone for Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, but in the joy of reunion, the sense of melancholy seeps through only occasionally.
The book hints strongly that Christopher Robin is keenly aware of the change in his circumstances, while Pooh and Piglet have vague suspicions. While they savor Christopher Robin's return, they sense a greater degree of maturity, and neither can quite forget his long absence, as the rest seem to do fairly quickly, or be entirely assured that he won't leave again. The book takes place over one golden summer in which Christopher Robin appears to make a conscious effort to cram in as much fun as possible, knowing that another nine months or so of boarding school awaits and unsure of what sort of person he will have become by the time of his next extended visit.
I came by knowledge of this book from an unlikely source: Saturday Night Live. Seth Meyers mentioned the book's release during the Weekend Update segment, announcing that there would be a new character, which set him up for the distasteful punchline that this was a replacement for Eeyore, who had decided to do away with himself. Eeyore is just as gloomy as ever in this book, his sense of sarcasm as sharp as the thistles he craves, but of all the characters, he seems to benefit most from the arrival of spunky Lottie, an otter. Perhaps a fresh pair of eyes is just what is needed to draw Eeyore more deeply into the affairs of the rest of the forest. The others are so tired of being shot down that they hesitate to make friendly overtures to him anymore, but Lottie has the right mix of optimism and stubbornness to lift Eeyore out of the doldrums now and again.
The book has ten chapters, and while certain scenes focus on only one or two characters, most are ensemble efforts, effectively drawing in not only the major players, who also include Rabbit, Tigger, Owl, Kanga and Roo, but oodles of Rabbit's Friends and Relations. Consequently, there are many busy scenes in which characters essentially talk over top of one another, their personality quirks allowing for some very funny dialogue. I don't think there was a single chapter that failed to make me laugh out loud. Benedictus has a wonderful feel for these fluff-filled friends, and he imitates Milne's style so effectively that it's easy to almost forget Milne didn't write it himself.
Meanwhile, Mark Burgess does an admirable job with the full-color illustrations. The mimicry isn't quite as precise in this department; I don't think I would ever mistake these paintings for Ernest Shepard originals. It's mostly in the faces that a slight difference is apparent. But they are very well done nonetheless, enhancing the book on nearly every page, with one massive two-page spread toward the end of the book and a new map of the Wood on the inside of the cover. Because the book is meant to be set less than a year after The House at Pooh Corner, there's an old-fashioned sense to story and illustrations alike, with a gramophone and Latin lessons some of the more noteworthy antiquities. The book also has a distinctly English feel to it, especially during the chapter in which Christopher Robin teaches all of his friends how to play cricket. Moreover, a chapter about the formation of a Hundred Acre Wood Academy reminded me of Harry Potter with its talk of headmasters and prefects.
Benedictus gives each of the main characters moments in the spotlight. Hyperactive Roo often rambles, while Kanga has a tendency to let her maternal instincts extend beyond her own son; she especially has a knack for reining in Tigger. Rabbit remains a fussbudget, which leads to his extensive woodland census project, a source of amusement to me since it reminds me so much of Hurley's similarly poorly-received attempts at the same on LOST. Meanwhile, in one chapter reminiscent of his attempts to cure Tigger of his bouncing, he hatches a rather mean-spirited plan to dissuade Owl from writing his uncle's biography, as the exercise makes the bird excessively cross. Never one to squelch creative impulses, I found that chapter somewhat sad but was pleased to see acknowledgment from some of the others that Rabbit's idea might not have been too kind. Owl's pomposity is on full display whenever possible, facilitating some of the book's funniest moments, and though Christopher Robin usually humors him, there are times when even his patience is tested by Owl's self-importance.
Though Christopher Robin is the impetus for the adventures in this book, Piglet remains Pooh's most constant companion, which is scarcely avoidable now that they share a home. Piglet is as jittery as ever, both excitable and timid. While the book is pretty episodic, a longer story arc, wrapped up in the predominant theme of change, or lack thereof, is Piglet's concern that Lottie's arrival will diminish him. In chapter four, Piglet is secretly disappointed when he does something heroic but Pooh overlooks it in favor of Lottie's contributions; in the eighth chapter, he receives dramatic reinforcement of Pooh's respect for him.
Pooh himself is as obsessed with honey as ever, a preoccupation that leads to more than one adventure this time around, and though he is kind, he sometimes fails to notice the needs of others. At other times, however, he is surprisingly attentive, as when he worries that he may be offending the bees by taking their honey all the time without asking, and he also concocts a clever plan or two over the course of the summer. Most of all, Pooh is reflective. For a Bear of Little Brain, he certainly does a lot of thinking, and scattered throughout the book are five Hums of his composition.
Even better than the Hums themselves are the ruminations on the poetic process. There's this, from the first chapter: "...a hum is all very well as far as it goes, and very well indeed when it goes for seven verses, but it isn't a Real Hum until it's been tried out on somebody." Then, at the end of the eighth chapter, comes the admission that made me laugh more than any other single moment in the book, partly because I can relate so well. After reciting a Hum containing a rather dubious simile, Pooh confesses, "But it wasn't really like a fish, only I couldn't think of anything else and then I ran out of time, and sometimes it's best to have something not quite right in a hum so that everybody can say: 'Humph! I could have done it better myself.'"
To this bit of self-deprecation, Christopher Robin responds, "I couldn't have," and while I'm a little bemused by the decision to publish an authorized sequel to the Pooh novels after all these years and hundreds of unofficial books, I find this conversation particularly fitting for the book itself. Just as Pooh seeks to honor Piglet with his humble hum, Benedictus pays homage to the world Milne created, and I think he does a better job of it than even he might be quick to admit. All of the characters feel incredibly authentic, and they weave in and out of simple adventures with clever twists and perfect comic timing, with just a hint of somberness more likely to be noticed by adults than children.
"Are you really going to write us new adventures?" Christopher Robin inquires of the author in the introduction. "Because we rather liked the old ones." Thankfully, if you rather liked the old ones too, then I expect you will find these new ones a rare treat indeed.
It s been 80 years since the publication of The House at Pooh Corner, in which Christopher Robin says good-bye to Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends in t...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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