Review of The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
A.E. Jackson Review Score: 4 / 5 Ravens
How was this review scored?
If you’ve not seen the 1984 film, The Neverending Story, then stop what you’re doing and go watch it right now. Cancel whatever plans you’ve got and flee to Fantasia to help The Childlike Empress. There is no greater concern in your life than ensuring Fantasia doesn’t get swallowed up by the Nothing.
With that out of the way, you’ve got the introduction you need for your real journey into Fantastica and the ever-unfolding world dreamt up by German author Michael Ende. It wasn’t until college that a small copy of the book fell into my hands. Can you believe that I never even knew the story existed as a novel before it was a film?
Reading the book that inspired the classic coming-of-age film is an entirely other experience!
Award-winning German author Michael Ende brought the world The Neverending Story, a classic tale of one boy and the book that magically comes to life.
Bastian, a shy and awkward boy, finds an old book called The Neverending Story in a dusty old bookshop. He gets swept away in the magical world of Fantastica - so much so that he finds he has actually become a character in the story! When he realizes that the mysteriously enchanted world is in grave danger, he also discovers that he is the one chosen to save it.
Bastian will have to overcome the barrier between reality and his imagination to save Fantastica. Can he succeed?
Turning the cover to enter Fantastica with Bastian, it’s a pleasure to come face to face with familiar characters and events from the film. There are differences to be sure. What Ende dreamed could still be difficult to match on screen. Which is why reading this book is recommended so passionately. Especially for book lovers.
The familiar soon ceases and the reader finds themselves at the end of the story told in the film. Yet - there is still two thirds of the novel remaining to be explored. There are multiple new adventures to undertake, vast areas of Fantastica to be revealed, and literal armies of characters to face with Bastian and the other main character of the story. (* wink, nod *)
This story is approachable for young children who’ve just started with longer works, chapter books, and full-length novels. The living imagination of Ende thrives and is fueled by their wonder. Grown film fans will enjoy returning to a land they once visited and thought they knew well. Adults, with some perspective on life, will find new answers to their oldest fears and greatest problems which have always plagued them.
There is so, so, so much here. And once the journey is complete, readers will want to flip to the beginning to start all over again.
Michael Ende was born in Bavaria, Germany on November 12th, 1929 to famous surrealist painter Edgar Ende, and a physiotherapist Luise Bartholoma Ende. After the Nazis came into power, his father's work was banned. When World War II began Michael, at the age of fourteen, was drafted into the German Army. Instead, he destroyed his registration documents and joined the resistance movement.
During World War II, many schools were closed due to bombing. Michael stayed at a boarding house, where he studied poetry and began writing. Because the Nazis banned lots of modern poetry, Ende studied the Romantic poet Novalis. After the war, Ende returned to school where his interest in writing surfaced.
Michael Ende's books were translated into more than 40 different languages. They’ve sold over 20 million copies worldwide. He is considered one of 20th century Germany's most famous and popular writers.
Read more by Michael Ende at https://michaelende.de/en/
You won’t find him on social media - but there are lots of fans out there eager to discuss his work.