Sep 26, 2022
If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen that I absolutely lost my mind over the book “Darling Girl” a couple of weeks ago. It’s a modern day examination of the Peter Pan fairy tale, in which Wendy Darling’s granddaughter Holly must take on Peter Pan in order to save her daughter’s life. I think it’s such a clever take on the story, with fresh characters and a mature, nuanced look at the real heart of the story.
Today, the author of that marvelous book, Liz Michalski, is here to talk to me about the original Peter Pan and why she wrote her take on it. Along the way we discussed her love of the fantastic in every day life, the joy and grief of sending our adult children into the world, the often tragic life of author J.M. Barrie and how it influenced his strange literary world, and why “Peter Pan” is the Best Book Ever.
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Host: Julie Strauss
Guest: Liz Michalski
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Discussed in this episode:
Darling Girl: A Novel of Peter Pan by Liz Michalski
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Taproot: A Story About a Gardener and a Ghost by Keezy Young
Peter Pan (2003 Live action movie)
If you are looking for more iterations of Peter Pan, there is also a sort of prequel 2015 movie with Hugh Jackman, and of course, Hook with Robin Williams. They all have really different vibes!
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
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