Nine-year-old Nory Winslow ends all of her stories with "To Be Continued," but none of her fairy-tale fantasies find closure in a sequel. An open-ended sense of possibility and wonder lights up the pages of Nicholson Baker's magical "The Everlasting Story of Nory," a delightful account of the inner life of a fourth-grade girl.
Nory indulges in games of make-believe, battles with bad dreams and spins yarns about the lives of heroic alter egos, but her active imagination never overshadows her practical, grounded nature. Nory's matter-of-fact observations and explanations of life as an American girl in England are what make this novel such a pleasure.
Baker's grasp of a young girl's way of thinking is just short of mindboggling; he reveals Nory's thoughts with the tone and terminology of one her sex and age. The author misuses and misspells words ("tastebobs" instead of taste buds), makes both inappropriate and wildly apropos comparisons (a nightmare is like a "bad screensaver"), and mixes metaphors as Nory navigates through friendships, a new culture and the pressing questions of the schoolyard.
Only Nory's sheer perfection mars this tidy adventure of the mind. I get the feeling Baker is smitten with his fictional little girl.
Like a benevolent Humbert, Baker reveals the cuteness and wit his little nymphet exudes as she relates the practical difficulties of reading to dolls and decides that the worst way to die would be to "be smuggled by surprise with a hand over your mouth."
"The Everlasting Story of Nory" is an unusual book‹a funny, light-hearted look at a child's life written for an adult audience. Without resorting to sugary sentiment, it taps into grown-up nostalgia, touching that part of us that wishes we could return to our childhood knowing what we now know. Baker infuses this surprising book with grace and nuance, opening a window into our memories as we wish they read.
(Alma Limprecht)
- The Everlasting Story of Nory
- Nicholson Baker
- Random House, $22.00, 226 pages
- Nicholson Baker
copyright 1998 New City Communications, Inc.