Fantasy with humor, coming of age, loss of innocence.
The title of Beagle’s fantasy story is somewhat misleading, in that his protagonist, the Unicorn, while perhaps his central character, is not the most intriguing. Certainly, the story revolves around her search for others of her kind, but it is Schmendrick the Magician who caught my attention in the tale. Schmendrick’s many bungled attempts at performing magic offer comedic relief to the story, and Beagle’s fascination with this character shows.
As an emerging poet, the prose and poetry throughout the story caught my eye, and Beagle’s rhyming skills are great. Even the Unicorn, while under the spell casting her as Lady Amalthea, sings a song near the end of the book. These poems and songs serve to cast a spell of their own over the reader, lulling them into the fantasy world Beagle has created.
I find satisfaction in the story’s ending, as it didn’t have the “happily ever after” theme that is typically found in such fairy tale settings. Instead, the Unicorn is unable to return to her former way of life (since she has experienced mortality,) but she frees the other unicorns, who destroy King Haggard’s castle, and the man who loved her, Prince Lir, inherits the kingdom. While there is “happiness” in the ending of the story, it wasn’t as predictable as most prince and princess fairy tales. The Unicorn returns to her forest, as do the other unicorns she has freed, but they don’t all live happily together, and mankind cannot communicate with them again. Nor can the “Last Unicorn” go back to her formerly carefree way of living, because she now understands loss, sorrow, aging, and death.
Clumsy Schmendrick finally comes into his own, receives and learns to channel the magic that formerly alluded him. With wisdom, comes success.
This, then, is a story of coming of age, of maturing, or growing, and of learning to live a life that offers help and service to others, even if it means letting go of our own happiness for a little while. There is reality in this fantasy: humor, sadness, joy, longing, suffering, frustration, and success. It’s a story to which even the most unimaginative adult can relate.Read full review
