Mythmaker Book Review

Title: Mythmaker: The Life of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Author: Anne E. Neimark

Genre: Biography, Nonfiction, True Story, Historical.

Plot: Tolkien's famous works, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, etc., have captured readers' attention for decades now, but few know about the man behind the myths. This little book, numbering only one hundred thirty-six pages, weaves the pieces of Tolkien's life into a easily digested story that hints at the much bigger even more impressively illustrated tale that is J.R.R. Tolkien.

Beginning in the hot dusty Continent of Africa, three year old Tolkien first starts exploring the world around him and unconsciously, unknowingly, forming the friends and foes that would decorate the pages of his stories that would be birthed so many years later when he was older and wiser. But for now, he gleefully ran away from his nurse, hoping to climb that one little tree beckoning to him, and instead finds himself opposed by a fearsome tarantula spider that bites his little foot. As he and his younger brother grow up in a harsh world, enduring the loss early on of their father and then, eight years later, their mother, Tolkien's imagination lies in wait, gathering information and inspiration then storing it away for when the time to use it would come. And when that perfect time did come, oh how unprepared the world - and Tolkien himself - were for the depth and width of his creation.

Likes/Dislikes: This was a beautifully written biography in wonderful story form, not at all boring. It made me further appreciate the author of one of the greatest literary works that will grace our bookshelves for years to come. I especially found the accounts of how his widowed mother came from a Protestant background to convert to Catholicism {my husband is Catholic}, the difficulties Tolkien and his sweetheart endured before they could finally marry, and the little interesting fact that his wife, Edith, converted to Catholicism prior to their marriage. All very interesting. Their were parts of the story that moved me very deeply - such as the eighteen years of grueling work to give birth to The Lord of Rings, ending in wild triumph. But the best part was that after his wife's death, Tolkien still wore his wedding ring. When one friend advised him to take off the ring to lessen his grief, "he flatly refused. 'I am still married,' Ronald said. On Middle-Earth, he told his friend, Sauron's One Ring had been filled with negative power, exhausting the strength of Frodo, Gollum, or anyone wearing it - but the gold band on his own finger, worn for fifty-five years, contained the eternal powers of goodness and love." That kind of love is a beautiful thing.

Rating: G- Recommended for all ages. Highly recommended!

Date Report Written: April 27th, 2013.