Pinocchio

Though one of the best-known books in the world <i>Pinocchio</i> at the same time remains unknown&#151;linked in many minds to the Walt Disney movie that bears little relation to Carlo Collodi&#146;s splendid original. That story is of course about a puppet who after many trials succeeds in becoming a &#147;real boy.&#148; Yet it is hardly a sentimental or morally improving tale. To the contrary Pinocchio is one of the great subversives of the written page a madcap genius hurtled along at the pleasure and mercy of his desires a renegade who in many ways resembles his near contemporary Huck Finn. <br><br><i> Pinocchio</i> the novel no less than Pinocchio the character is one of the great inventions of modern literature. A sublime anomaly the book merges the traditions of the picaresque of street theater and of folk and fairy tales into a work that is at once adventure satire and a powerful enchantment that anticipates surrealism and magical realism. Thronged with memorable characters and composed with the fluid but inevitable logic of a dream <i>Pinocchio</i> is an endlessly fascinating work that is essential equipment for life.