Review n. 1 - “The Neverending Story” by Michael Ende
Author: Michael Ende
Original title: Die unendliche Geschichte
English title: The Neverending Story
Year: 1979
Type of work: Novel
Edition used for reading: TEA editions
Brief notes about the author’s life: born in 1929 and died in 1995, german.
Michael Ende's life is punctuated by more or less traumatic events, especially in the early years of his life: for example, in 1937 his first friend died; his name was Willie and from him the writer also drew the appearance for the future character of Bastian, main character of "The Neverending Story". He has lived for fourteen years in Italy, in Genzano di Roma, with his first wife, who died in 1985 (the author returned to Germany in 1983). He made his first trip to Japan in 1977 and the second in 1989, where he married his second wife; he died of cancer in 1995.
Youth Curiosity: In 1945 Michael Ende was forcibly enlisted for the extreme defense of Nazi Germany, at that time close to total defeat. After a one-day training, he was sent to the front, where he saw three of his comrades die in the very first fights. The future writer threw his rifle to the ground and fled, walking through the night eighty kilometers, in an attempt to reach the place where his mother lived; he joined an anti-Nazi organization soon after, where he remained until the end of the war.
Other successful works: "Momo".
Plot: The main character is Bastian, a child, orphaned of mother, who can no longer communicate with his father and who, to escape the umpteenth school persecution carried out by his peers, takes refuge in the antique bookstore of Mr. Carlo Corrado Confetti, who is reading a particular book; the child gets intrigued and steals the object from the bookseller, then goes to the attic of the school and begins to read the exciting novel entitled "The Neverending Story". The book tells the story of the reign of Fantàsia and its ruler, the Empress, threatened by the unstoppable advance of "Nothing".
At this point, help is asked to the young knight Atreyu, who goes to the Ivory Tower to encounter the leaders of the Kingdom of Fantàsia, where he is tasked with finding a solution to the problem that afflicts everyone. From that moment Atreyu will have to face, armed only with a medallion-talisman called Auryn, all the various trials and adventures he will find in his path. Atreyu crosses Fantàsia and faces a series of dangerous obstacles; he concludes that the only chance of salvation is to lead to his country a human being that will give to his sovereign a new name.
Slowly, Bastian becomes more and more taken by the novel, so much so that he realizes that he can actively influence the follow-on of the story. He realizes that he is the only one who can save Fantàsia, a place that is being erased swallowed up by Nothing; however, he does not immediately put himself in the game, thinking that he is not up to the task. The queen is then forced to go to the Old Wanderer of Mountain, the one who writes everything that happens in the kingdom of Fantàsia, in order to convince a human to intervene to save them. The boy, leafing through the pages, realizes that the Empress and the Old Wanderer begin to talk about him and the events that had led him to read about their history.
The main character decides to finally pronounce the name he has chosen for the Empress, only to be sucked in the book and catapulted to Fantàsia, where the sovereign instructs him to recreate the fantastic kingdom now reduced only to a grain of sand. With the Auryn, who receives as a gift from the Empress, Bastian begins his adventure in Fantàsia and his task is to recreate the kingdom through his desires. Only Atreyu and the luckydragon Fukùr soon realize that, with every desire the boy makes, he loses a memory related to his human life; if the boy ends his memories, he will no longer be able to express desires, becoming trapped in the kingdom of Fantàsia forever.
In fact, Bastian remembers only his own name and, with the help of Atreyu, enters the Waters of Life, where he dives – only to find himself in the attic of the school and be able to return home; his friends will complete his task instead of him.
At this point Bastian goes to the bookstore to return the book and tells the whole story to Mr. Cordiandoli, who pretends to know nothing about it.
Style: The style is smooth and linear, simple to follow even for the youngest, at least in the italian translation; the story is carried on with the typical cadence of fantastic tales and well adapts to a simple thought, without superfluous hyperbole.
Comment on the story: "The Neverending Story" was the second story I saw the film on television first, and then read the book (the first story was Peter Pan's "Hook - Captain Hook" in Robin Williams's admirable performance, but this is not the place to talk about it). The film I saw as a child had particularly impressed me and reading the book made me go back in time: I cried again at the death of Artax, Atreyu’s horse, I felt warmed by heart by Fùkur's action in the Sadness Swamps, I was as frightened as Bastian while reading about Mork.
But addressing this story with a more adult mind also made me understand its purpose: not only Ende's willingness to make people understand what "Fantasy" is and why it is important, especially for children, who find themselves, especially in our time, in constant contrast to the "Nothing", but also how necessary it is to understand oneself. When the Magic Mirror, at the gate of the Second Door to reach the Oracle, reflects the image of Atreyu, of his true self, revealing to him a little emaciated boy in the attic of a school, that is actually Bastian, who reads about himself, you understand how the true self of each of us is not what our mirror reflects every morning, with our image of us just awaken, but it is the one of our unconscious, who lives great adventures without us knowing. Those who haven’t understood it yet, are reduced as those adults who think about everything and think about nothing at the same time, carrying on their lives in total greyness.
Here lies the magic of the "neverending story": it is a circle that opens with Bastian who steals the book from the Owner Carlo Corrado Confetti Antiques’ shop and closes with Bastian who returns it to the Owner Carlo Corrado Confetti, who nevertheless does not remember owning it; the infinite circle opens and closes with us readers attached to the page of the book, with us who are and are not Bastian, a child lost in pages and in fantasy.
VeronicaSaeko









