The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is my first Terry Pratchett book. I've always wanted to try Terry Pratchett, but kept postponing as I don't want to be reading his Discworld books out of sequence.Anyway, I decided to read this one when I saw the cover - it shows this wise cat with parts of his ears chewed off. In front of him are five rats encircling a lighted candle. One is colored white, one has a hat on, and the others are holding tools. Should be interesting. The story is based on The Pied Piper but with a twist. You have this talking cat called Maurice, who leads a band of talking rats into towns being a plague, and their accomplice (a not-so-bright kid named Keith) comes along to lead them away. The town pays for his service, and they share the loot afterwards.
The rats decided they have enough money to buy a boat and sail away to some foreign land to start their own colony, but Maurice wanted more. They agreed to one last con. But things in the town of Bad Blintz, Uberwald is not as simple as it looks. The people are starving; the rat catchers are cashing in rat tails; there are no rats anywhere. Keith meets the mayor's neurotic daughter Malicia, and together they investigate what's going on with the rat-catchers. With the help of amazing Maurice and his educated rodents, they take on the guild of rat-catchers, a rat king called Spider and his army of keekee rats, Bone Rat - the rat equivalent of Death, etc. etc.
It's advertised as a children's book, but adults will no doubt enjoy reading it, too. The book touches on "heavy" subjects as what makes someone human, how we treat lesser beings, the importance of having a common language and shared history, life and death, the concept of heaven and hell, etc. One of the better children's books I've read so far.One interesting thing about this book (hardbound children's edition) is that it has 271 pages, but 233 chapters. This is because Christopher Boone the narrator has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, and he likes prime numbers. He also like Sherlock Holmes, astronomy, playing Minesweeper, and solving difficult math problems. He doesn't like it when there are too many people, or when people shout or touch him. He has a photographic memory, and can remember every detail from events that happened long, long time ago. That's why he doesn't like crowds or new places because there's too much information for his mind to process, and he gets a headache. He would crouch down, sway back and forth, and groan to blank out the noise. Sometimes, he would do squares and cubes mentally to make himself concentrate.
One night, he discovers that Mrs. Shears' dog has been killed - speared by a garden fork, and he decides to investigate in the manner of Sherlock Holmes. He writes a book detailing all his discoveries and experiences, which became The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. (Incidentally, the title is a quotation of a remark made by Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of Silver Blaze.) During his investigation, Christopher was told by a neighbor that Mr. Shears had an affair with his Mom. He also discovers a stack of letters from his Mom, who supposedly died from heart attack. The weekly letters tell him that his Mom is actually living in London with Mr. Shears. His Dad later admitted to killing the dog out of frustration and hiding the letters from him. His simplistic, logical mind tells him that if the only person he trusts can lie to him, then he might also be capable of killing him. Fearing for his life, he embarks on a difficult journey to London to seek out his Mom. He is probably unaware that he's the reason why his Mom left in the first place. Meanwhile, his Dad tries everything to make Christopher trust him again.
One can't help but feel for Christopher as the sneaks out of the house, holding a knife to protect himself from his sleeping Dad, getting lost in the train station, being chased by a policeman in the train, and ultimately reuniting with his Mom.
No comments:
Post a Comment