In the world of children's literature, there have been few characters who are curious and curiouser than Alice. With endless adaptations over the past century on stage and screen, Lewis Carroll's defining creation has inspired audiences to find the absurd in everyday life. With zippy prose and playful language, Wonderland is a world that comes to life all too easily. What's more impressive is that even with an inventive original story, credit should be given to "Alice Through the Looking Glass" for being more than a retread of what's come before. Sure, it's another visit through the crazy world of characters, but like the best of sequels, it builds on what came before and creates a strong companion to the original. In fact, one could argue that this features some of the greatest moments Carroll ever wrote.
One of the greatest achievements of the author's writing is his ability to capture the childlike wonder. While many would overplay certain aspects of a curious youth, Carroll allows Alice to exist as an observer, someone who is at odds with the world in part because she's a child. To her, the logic of adults is maddening and that comes across very clearly to the reader. From the opening pages where he references a difficult chess match, he is ready to challenge the reader to recontextualize what fiction can achieve. This isn't going to be a simple journey of self-discovery or anything necessarily substantial. This is one full of cryptic language and purple prose laid out so lavishly that it's like seeing literature elevate to another level. This is a world full of awe, unlike anything that came before, and it presents something that fosters imagination better than just about any other book.
To describe the book is to take away some of its thrills which thrive on the unexpected. When discovering characters like Humpty Dumpty, there is something to how Carroll paints these familiar fables in new ways. There is an effort to find meaning and it's often done through elaborate over-explaining and compensation for something that's ultimately confusing and nonsensical. Poems will wind around the page, even complementing drawings that add enough context for the prose. Everything feels so rich and full of potential that it's hard not to appreciate the craft that went into everything. Every passage may not necessarily connect together, but they all have a unifying gift. They all leave the reader wanting to pause and look closer, to try and make sense of what they just read. Much like the looking glass at the center, one finds that looking too close may result in more confusion.
Many will be quick to cite "Alice in Wonderland" as an essential children's book. However, success didn't come for Carroll until this sequel which managed to expand on those ideas and reflect his gift for wordplay. Everything here tickles the imagination and creates vivid characters that resonate with the reader. Some of them are more linear for adults, but those who are in-between reflect the confusion everyone feels about society at some point in their lives. Even if the book doesn't make total sense or has a cohesive plot, it captures the cleverness of uncertainty. The need for understanding the world is difficult and not always achievable. Sometimes it's best just to give into that temptation and allow the mystery to hold.
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