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[Brianna_C]

Labyrinth: A Novel by A.C.H. Smith (Henry Holt and Co., out of print)

You may be asking yourself, could it possibly be true?? Labyrinth was a book??? The answer is yes, yes it was. And I just had the pleasure of reading it!

During the height of the success of Jim Henson's film, Labyrinth (starring my main man, David Bowie, and a future Academy Award Winner, Jennifer Connelly), in 1986, several pieces of literature were published. Brian Froud, the amazing fantasy and conceptual artist who designed the goblins, came out with a book about the goblins of the Labyrinth. There was even a storybook with a record (remember those, kids of the 80s?!: "You may turn the page when you hear the chimes ring like this...Let's begin...")!

And though the Labyrinth novel was probably another way to cash in on the movie's success, I do not care. I was thrilled to find out a book had been published. Labyrinth is my favorite movie of all time. Unfortunately, the book is no longer in print, and I lack the $50-$130 dollars it would cost to purchase these collectables. I did, however, find the book on a Labryinth fansite, where I printed it off a couple years ago, and I finally got around to reading it.

For those of you who don't know the story (which I know is very few), it goes a little like this:

Sarah is a fifteen-year-old who is forever trapped in her own little world. She loves her toys and costumes, and basks in the light of her mother, an actress on the stage. She is forever determined to follow in her mother's footsteps.

Responsibility, however, stands in her way. Her parents are divorced, and her father remarried, and now Sarah has a baby brother, Toby. She hates Toby, for she finds him spoiled and annoying. She is always having to babysit her brother, which impedes on her time to practice her latest theatrical feat, The Labyrinth.

She arrives home an hour late to babysit Toby one evening, and is met by a not-so-happy stepmother, who is dressed to go out. Exchanging a few hateful words, Sarah claims she can't do anything right. And thus begins all her troubles.

Fed up with being left with Toby, Sarah throws a fit while her brother screams his lungs out. She begins reciting the tale of The Labyrinth, threatening Toby that she will call for the goblins to come and take him away, because the Goblin King has given her powers to do so. Sarah does say the right words, and Toby is taken away. It turns out the goblins do exist; perhaps the story is not so untrue after all.

Sarah is shortly after paid a visit by Jareth, the King of the Goblins, who is a vain, bored, and easily amused ruler of The Castle Beyond the Goblin City. After Sarah's protests against his taking of Toby, Jareth tells her he will let her try to solve The Labyrinth, which is a long and intricate maze of walls, hedges, traps, and creatures. He gives her 13 hours in which to complete the task, claiming Toby will be turned into a goblin if she fails.

The book reminded me quite a bit of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Sarah does a lot of thinking and reasoning and talking to herself, in much the same way Alice does in Carrol's book. And a further similarity can be found in all the creatures Sarah comes to meet within the Labyrinth, including Hoggle: a grumpy dwarf with an afinity for jewelry, Sir Didymus: a brave and valiant little fox who is always up for adventure, and Ludo: a huge beast with a kind heart who is friends with the rocks.

Labyrinth rocks. That is all.
_________________
~*Bri*~

[shaw]

God I loved that movie.

The set at the end was based on an Escher painting. Or was it the video?