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Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O'Brien (re-read)
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
, by Robert C. O'Brien
When Mrs. Frisby's frailest child, Timothy, comes down with pneumonia, the doctor insists that he cannot be moved—cannot be taken outside—must remain safe and warm indoors. This presents a problem, though, because Mrs. Frisby is a fieldmouse, and the entire family must move house from the garden to the stream banks soon, lest their home be torn apart when the farmer plows the garden. Mrs. Frisby's quest for an answer leads her to a crow, an owl, and finally the mysterious rats who live beneath the rose bush... and who have an unexplained connection to Mrs. Frisby's late husband.
Oh, I adored this book when I was a kid. I read it for the first time when I was eight? nine? and then again every couple of years until I was in high school. This was my first re-read in a long while, though, and I was pleased by how well it stood up.
In a lot of ways, it's really a remarkable little book. If you leave aside the fact that Mrs. Frisby is clearly too intelligent to be a 'normal' fieldmouse, there's no magic in the book at all. Mrs. Frisby achieves everything she does through courage and fortitude, and the rats do their part through wits, intelligence and good planning (as well as a dose of bravery of their own). And, while the book does include unusual, even superhuman (superrodent?) characters, the heroine is a quite ordinary fieldmouse, a mother, sensible and kind and determined, and while there are other remarkable characters she remains central throughout. (Although I confess, I had a confused little cross-species crush on Justin. I still kind of do.)
Another thing about the book: there really aren't any villains. Even the humans who appear as antagonists are more like forces of nature than "bad guys," which makes perfect sense given their roles in the lives of the animals on the farm.
I think those two things are why I never really could love the movie The Secret of NIMH. On its own, it's not at all a bad animated film—and I'm not a stickler for accuracy in conversions of book to movie; I know that what makes a good book doesn't necessarily make a good movie. But The Secret of NIMH added both magic and a villain, and, to me, that took away a lot of what had made the book special.
Anyway. This is quite clearly a middle-grade book, but if you can see past that, I think it holds up quite well. I just reread it in one gulp, one sitting, one long bubble bath, and I'm glad I did. Highly recommended.
There is one way in which the book dates itself: the rats have gender roles, and the males seem to be in charge. I think the strength of Mrs. Frisby's character (in both sense of the word—she's as well-rounded, and as courageous, as anyone in the book) makes up for the implied gender inequity among the rats, but mileage may vary.
, by Robert C. O'BrienWhen Mrs. Frisby's frailest child, Timothy, comes down with pneumonia, the doctor insists that he cannot be moved—cannot be taken outside—must remain safe and warm indoors. This presents a problem, though, because Mrs. Frisby is a fieldmouse, and the entire family must move house from the garden to the stream banks soon, lest their home be torn apart when the farmer plows the garden. Mrs. Frisby's quest for an answer leads her to a crow, an owl, and finally the mysterious rats who live beneath the rose bush... and who have an unexplained connection to Mrs. Frisby's late husband.
Oh, I adored this book when I was a kid. I read it for the first time when I was eight? nine? and then again every couple of years until I was in high school. This was my first re-read in a long while, though, and I was pleased by how well it stood up.
In a lot of ways, it's really a remarkable little book. If you leave aside the fact that Mrs. Frisby is clearly too intelligent to be a 'normal' fieldmouse, there's no magic in the book at all. Mrs. Frisby achieves everything she does through courage and fortitude, and the rats do their part through wits, intelligence and good planning (as well as a dose of bravery of their own). And, while the book does include unusual, even superhuman (superrodent?) characters, the heroine is a quite ordinary fieldmouse, a mother, sensible and kind and determined, and while there are other remarkable characters she remains central throughout. (Although I confess, I had a confused little cross-species crush on Justin. I still kind of do.)
Another thing about the book: there really aren't any villains. Even the humans who appear as antagonists are more like forces of nature than "bad guys," which makes perfect sense given their roles in the lives of the animals on the farm.
I think those two things are why I never really could love the movie The Secret of NIMH. On its own, it's not at all a bad animated film—and I'm not a stickler for accuracy in conversions of book to movie; I know that what makes a good book doesn't necessarily make a good movie. But The Secret of NIMH added both magic and a villain, and, to me, that took away a lot of what had made the book special.
Anyway. This is quite clearly a middle-grade book, but if you can see past that, I think it holds up quite well. I just reread it in one gulp, one sitting, one long bubble bath, and I'm glad I did. Highly recommended.
There is one way in which the book dates itself: the rats have gender roles, and the males seem to be in charge. I think the strength of Mrs. Frisby's character (in both sense of the word—she's as well-rounded, and as courageous, as anyone in the book) makes up for the implied gender inequity among the rats, but mileage may vary.
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Join the club!
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I also (SPOILER ALERT TO THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW THE BOOK) still cling to my preadolescent insistence that Justin couldn't possibly have died, he had to have lived... even though as an adult I know full well that it'd have been entirely in character for him to sacrifice himself. (AND THAT"S WHY I LOVED HIM.)
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We totally need TEAM JUSTIN t-shirts.
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I love this book. I love that the hero is genuinely unlikely - not a super-smart rat, not the strong oldest mouse son, not even the sickly younger son, but the mom. I love the story-within-the-story of the birth of the super-smart rats. I love the revelations about how the rats are connected to the mouse family.
And yeah, I too had a weird sort-of crush on Justin. But then I also had one on Bigwig. I am just a sucker for selfless heroes, even if they are small enough to sit on my hand.
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When I read it for the first time, I was young enough that I took everything for granted, but it really struck me this time that the main character was the mom. And also that she was one of the "ordinary" characters: that there were super-smart, super-strong characters, and they were secondary. And their story was fascinating, but tangential to the main arc of the book, which centered on getting her house of danger of the plow.
In some ways it feels like it could be the model for a fantasy story set in a world with, say, powerful mages, that neither ignored the magic nor made every important character be a mage. For instance. That a character can be interesting and well-rounded and genuinely heroic without having the best powers, or ever attaining the best powers, or even, indeed, ever wanting to. (Mrs. Frisby's children show interest in finding out what happened to the rats, but she doesn't. She's not dissatisfied with her life, and doesn't, I think, see it as the smaller thing.)
tl;dr I love this book too.
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(The other interspecies crush I have in Watership is Bluebell, because I can never resist a smartass.) (And Dandelion the storyteller. Um. anyway.)
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But I should reread it. It sounds like it holds up well.
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But yes, good book. And I'll have to remember it as an entry in the rare "mother heroine" field.
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(Anonymous) 2011-04-19 11:21 am (UTC)(link)