Kaleidoscope by Brian Selznick
Product Details
Web ID: 13391850Short stories
A beautiful collection of stories that all seem to be a bit like a kaleidoscope, moving from one idea or thought or dream to another, all told by a narrator and including their special friend, James. Some are dreamlike, fantastical, and even a little spooky but all are short and spectacular. Each story has an illustration to go along with it and each one is broken up with a beautiful kaleidoscope image, each as different and as beautiful as each story. The author wrote this while isolated and separated from their partner during Cvd19 and while absolutely beautiful, there is definitely a pang of sadness and longing in these stories.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Great illustrations to a not great read
How we loved “The Marvels”, “Invention of Hugo Cabret”, and “Wonderstruck” – both the stories and the amazing illustrations so I was thrilled to see he had a new book out. Consequently, I am so bummed that while the illustrations continued to be Selznick worthy, I found the story to be very weird and disjointed. At first, I actually thought each chapter was a short story. There are two characters and they are childhood friends, but does one die? Then they are on a boat. Then there’s a boy in the woods with a giant. Then one boy is in space. The author wrote this book during the isolation of the pandemic – I feel it did not fare well for Mr. Selznick. Here’s hoping the next one will bring us back to his prior writing.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Brilliant
It starts with a ship going to see. Or exploring a wondrous garden. It begins when a boy named James leaves a message for his father with a doll that will be discovered years later, encased in ice. Always there is searching. There is missing, hoping. There is saying goodbye. It ends with an invisible key. A spirit machine born out of a dream made reality. With answers found inside inside an apple. Every spin of the kaleidoscope fragments one story while bringing another into focus. The beginning is always different. The end keeps changing. But always, slowly, there is peace in Kaleidoscope (2021) by Brian Selznick. Selznick's latest illustrated novel reads as a series of interconnected short stories--mediations on the same themes of loss and separation examined through different lenses. In his author's note Selznick explains the inspiration he drew directly from the early days of the pandemic when Selznick and his husband were separated for three months--a fracture that inspired more abstraction in his art and eventually led to this story. Each chapter (or self-contained story depending on your interpretation of the text) begins with a kaleidoscopic image followed by the unabstracted image pulled directly from the story. A namesless narrator tells each story and although the characters change, always there is a nameless character trying to make their way back to James. In some stories like "The Ice" or "The Spirit Machine" the grief is overt while other standout stories ("The Apple" or "In the Dark") offer more optimism. Common images and themes throughout each story slowly unfold to bring a larger narrative of connection and loss into focus. While the story lacks any significant female characters, the nameless narrators do serve as a cipher of sorts allowing readers to insert themselves fully into each story. Kaleidoscope is very much a product of the pandemic. Readers will see that in Selznick's carefully rendered artwork, the disjointed narratives, the stories that almost but don’t quite but maybe do intersect. Kaleidoscope is a meditative and ultimately hopeful novel ideal for readers seeking a puzzle-like diversion. Highly recommended. Possible Pairings: Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg, The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales by Chris Van Allsburg et al *An advance copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review consideration*
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Unlike any book I've ever read! 5/5
This book is unlike anything I’ve ever read. It is a collection of what initially seem to be unconnected short stories. Each one relates a different tale about the first-person narrator and a boy named James. The narrator’s and James’s identities are malleable from story to story, though certain themes and motifs remain consistent or reappear throughout the book: love and loss, grief and friendship; apples, gardens, butterflies, and—of course—a boy named James. It is a beautifully written book that is at once strange and wholly wonderful. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since the first time I read it a few weeks ago. Kaleidoscope does require effort on behalf of the reader, just as an actual kaleidoscope does. In fact, “Kaleidoscope” is the perfect title for such a collection of vignettes. You need to be willing to give yourself over to the stories, to lose yourself in the different facets of the book, all while asking (particularly on a re-read) how the stories relate to one another, even abstractly. There are also wonderful illustrations that engage the reader with similar concepts on a visual level. A “traditional” illustration marks the beginning of each short story, while a kaleidoscopic rendering of that image ends the story. Although one reviewer on here stated that the images don’t help tell the story, I would respectfully disagree. While they might not tell a “story,” the images reiterate the nature of the stories: I thought of it as one image (the “traditional” image) that represents the story, and one kaleidoscopic image that represents the story’s relationship to the others. Again and again in both the stories and the images, the reader is confronted by how things fragment, reflect back on each other, refract in on themselves, create new images from old ones. It might be a difficult concept for kids and even adults, but it’s worth exploring, particularly with regards to how grief and loss can fragment and disrupt our lives, leaving our world changed, but not without signs of that which was. The highest praise I can give this book is that I wish I had this book in my life as a kid and young adult, when the unexpected death of a loved one shattered my entire world. At the time, I wasn’t thinking of kaleidoscopes—just broken fragments on the floor. No book can heal those wounds or transform one’s way of seeing things, but this one would have helped guide me towards constructive understanding. It focuses on grief and loss from the perspective of having had and living on, even as it honors the grief and confusion that come with losing someone you love. And yet, even with loss being at the heart of many of its stories, hopelessness and despair have no place in the pages of Kaleidoscope. If anything, it underlines the mysterious workings of the world, the power of love (romantic, platonic, and familial), and the fact that—someday, somewhere, somehow—the workings of the universe will reunite us with the people we love, even if in the most unexpected of ways. I'd recommend this book to just about anyone, especially those who are open to more experimental approaches to storytelling.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com