Although Michael Ende wrote "The Neverending Story" as a children's book, it became a nationwide best seller in West Germany and a bible of the peace movement there. Its success is particularly strange because the book travels to an imaginary land and has virtually no political content. It's as if "The Hobbit" had become the rallying cry of the SDS…. (p. 112)
In the first half of the book, Fantastica is a conventional, even saccharine fairyland with the usual cast of princesses, gnomes and dragons. But the book comes to life when Bastian enters the story, ingeniously playing on the relation between imagination and reality. Ende has attempted an ambitious, if not always successful, mix of modernism and children's literature: Pirandello turned loose in Disneyland.
This is a free excerpt of 124 words. There are 208 words (approx.
1 page at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Ende, Michael 1930?–: Critical Essay by Alexander Stille Access Pass.
