Because Of Winn-Dixie (Dicamillo)

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Description: Because Of Winn-Dixie (Dicamillo)

Genre: King; Fiction; Fiction - Fantasy; Fantasy - Epic; Fantasy - Historical; Fiction / Fantasy / Epic; General; Arthur,;

Average Review: 4.5 stars

Review: A Good Novel But Not Great: King Arthur and his famous Knights of the Round Table are among the most famous characters of any mythology. This novel, entitled "The Once And Future King, is the re-telling of the legend published some four decades ago and written by a man who was fascinated by the medieval time period. This novel is a good novel, but it lacks greatness and is at times lacking. The novel's plot is well known. It starts with a young boy called Wart who pulls the sword from the stone and becomes the King of England. He marries Guinevere, sets up the famous Round Table, and creates an ideal society in the form of Camelot. But in the end this perfect could not last forever and eventually Camelot falls. Pretty much the basics of the Arthurian legend are retold here. The main problem of the novel is in its characterization. King Arthur is the protagonist of the novel, but yet he seems to be lacking in the wisdom we have come to associate with the legendary king. But he is a three-decisional character and he does suffers one tragic flaw: he is too trusting and this will lead to the fall of Camelot. The same lacking of characterization can be found in the other two characters of the novel: Guinevere and the brave knight Lancelot. White doesn't seem to be able to handle their characterization very well. This is especially true of the romance between them. The highlights in terms of characters are the bumbling knight King Pellinore and, of course, the sorcerer Merlyn. It is through Merlyn that Arthur learns many of the lessons and also that we get the social commentary of the novel. Yet the weak characterization of the main characters hurts the overall effect of the novel. White is at his best doing the descriptions rather then dialogue and it is this that makes the novel worth reading. There is an area where White doesn't keep this together as well. The novel's ending seems to be too awkwardly written and White seems to rush past many of the novels' revelations. It would have been nice if some of these had been closed since they do leave a few too many loose threads hanging at the end. In the final analysis, "The Once And Future King" is a novel of great intentions done written with mixed results. White managed to take the classic legend of old and infuse it with some freshness. Despite its lack of proper characterization and some loose threads at the end, the novel is still a good re-telling of the King Arthur story. If you are interested in the King Arthur legend this is a good choice to read.