Erica Miles's Reviews > At the Back of the North Wind

Another exquisite tapestry of a fairy tale by the renowned 19th century Scottish minister and theologian, George MacDonald, who, according to his biography, lost several of his own children to early death, due to the appalling childhood mortality which was just a fact of existence during MacDonald's lifetime. This highly intelligent and educated author's child-like, unquestioning faith in a traditional Christian God, despite his own many losses and suffering, resulted in a faith in a God, who, though mysterious in His ways, nevertheless, must have a purpose for His often times ill-seeming behavior and eventually (in Heaven?) reveal a deep meaning, behind the superfiicial appearance of tragedy, illness, sickness, lack of fairness, etc., for the down-trodden and afflicted members of humankind, as well as for animals and all sentient beings, e.g, elves in cottages and fairies who dwell among the petals of roses. MacDonald portrays the powerful, yet apparently whimsical or sometimes even nonsensical behavior of the mysterious, omniscient God in whom he believes through the character, North Wind, who must do her work, because it "feels" right to her, despite the violence and tragedy she sometimes wreaks. such as, for example, her "work" is to sink a ship, in which scene, where she grows from a lovely lady to a giantress, she sets the innocent little Curdie, who has "come along for the ride" with her, as it were, down from where he is hiding amid the wild, wavy tresses of her hair, as she flies through the air, so that Curdie will be spared hearing the cries and screams of the drowning passengers of the ship. Believe it or not, MacDonald manages to pull off this literary feat in a way that is not only entertaining,, but downright humorous, in the course of the "argument" between Curdie and the North Wind as to the wisdom of this gratuitous act of violence..
--Erica Miles, Author
of Dazzled by Darkness:
A Story of Art & Desire