Happy Endings.

I just finished a book called The Book of Lost Things. It is by an Irish writer with the last name of Connolly. I guess his main genre of writing is mystery thrillers, however, this book is focused on a young boy who goes through the season of turning into a man by being coerced to a secret land. The story starts off with his mother dying. His father remarries and has another child. During this whole process the boy is going through some interesting changes. He finds himself hearing the whispers of the books in his room and he is enticed into this magical world that is hidden in the sunken garden in the backyard. He finds himself trying to save his mother. Through his perilous journey in this strange land he meets people who come to his aid. These men have helped the boy with his jealousy and hatred, because as we all know childhood is not always sweet. We often as a society reminisce about our romantic childhood, but if we truly look at it with a skeptical eye we see hurt, pain, fear, even hatred. Through the book the young boy is tested in various ways and encounters the villain of the book.

The crooked man.

The young boy meets the crooked man and finds by the end of the book that the crooked man is evil. The intent of the crooked man is to get the young boy on the throne and to consume the heart of his younger brother. This is how the crooked man has stayed alive for so many years. At the climax of the book the crooked man is trying to persuade the man character to give him his younger brother.

The crooked man tells him that in the real world the main character will feel pain, sorrow, and grief. The people that the main character loves will die and leave him in his loneliness. The fantasy world is the place where the main character can be in control. In this world the young boy can have a happy ending.

The young boy does not relent. We often meet children like this. Those who have such courage and such integrity that nothing sways them from such virtue. These days, those children are far and few, but they still remain. The main character stands his ground. He goes back into the real world and he experiences everything that the crooked man proclaimed. He experiences the pain and sorrow of losing the ones he loves to sickness and to death. He experiences the pain of loneliness. However, at the end of his life he collects himself and he looks at his full life that he choose to lead. He finds that he did live a love of great love and a life of great pain, but he still lived.

For a happy ending filled with love cannot be without pain.