Something special

Apparently, I'm posting about once a month now. Yikes! I really have read, and some have been worth the discussion, I just haven't gotten around to writing anything. But the other day, I finished a book that was just one of those books that for some reason, get into your heart. I'm not sure what it was about it, because it really doesn't seem like anything extraordinary but there is that book magic about it--a story well told that makes you want to read more and sad when it ends.

The book was Nation, by Terry Pratchett. I know, I know, I have been on a huge TP kick and you are sick of hearing about him. Well, this book is NOT in the Discworld series and has a distinct flavor from those. I mean, it is still Pratchett and has the Pratchett mark, but it's got a different feel, too. The plot would fall into the Jungle Book category - civilization meets primitiveness. And here I should mention I haven't ever read The Jungle Book, but thematically as a broad category, I guess I'd link the two. Although only in the broad category sense. 

I really liked the characters. I liked his choice to use young people who still have that open-mindedness that hasn't been assaulted by ingrained centuries-old cultural beliefs. Although, they are both right on the cusp of that, so not completely naive, but at the point where they know what society says, but are still bold enough to question that. (Which is not to say that this is a trait only youth possess, it is just the concept and it works well here. Not quite symbolism, but I can't think of the right phrase or description. Sophomore English was a long time ago). 

The whole time you are reading the book, you know that at some point adults are going to come in and ruin everything. And you find that you are hoping it will take a long time for them to get there and do that, because it will change everything. Of course it does happen, and it does change everything, in good and bad and strange and kind of sad and different ways. But it leads to one of those bittersweet endings that is right.

I enjoy all of Pratchett's books, but this was one of the ones I definitely recommend, which is saying something.