Synopsis: Tom Trueheart really wants to be a hero, just like his six older brothers. They are valiant and bold, handsome and strong. But Tom secretly fears that he's not brave enough. The Story Bureau is never going to give him the beginning of an adventure so that he can uncover the ending.

Review: The story of Tom’s adventures is a story of questions. The conventions of books, story telling, and even the distinction between fiction and reality are called into question. The book at first glance is a chapter book of a very respectable 305 pages in length, and yet it begins with the oldest and most magical of conventions, “Once upon a time, long ago…” It even draws attention to its structure by being divided neatly into 3 parts: “The beginning,” “The middle” and “THE END?” Question mark? Uh oh – something has gone wrong already.

Intertextuality features strongly as Tom fights to save stories such as Cinderella, Snow White and Jack and the Beanstalk. The cross-references relate not only to other stories but also to other media. Tom lives in a world where stories are created by a combination of producers, authors (or “devisers”) and actors. Props need to be manufactured and there are even budgetary limitations. Poor Snow White should really have had 17 faithful dwarf followers; a shame the budget didn’t run that far. The references to TV and film are clear, and yet the novel, unlike a traditional fairy tale, is sparing in its use of illustration, providing beautifully crafted but frustratingly elusive silhouette images from which the story must be extracted via imagination.

Stories may be created in a 3D world of action and adventure, but even in Tom’s world, the 'actual' stories are produced afterwards, with words, in a book. The nature of both reality and convention are called into question. Tom and his family live outside the “Land of Stories” but the people within frequently show evidence of their own understanding of and complicity with the stories of which they form a part. But which of them are paid actors and how many of them are “real?” The goose that laid the golden egg appears to be very much the creation of her deviser, with no previous independent existence, and Tom’s brother Jack does not truly live the happy ending of the story he tells. And yet Tom’s other brothers all plan to marry their princesses at the ends of their stories. Who and what is real? Does the creation of a character in a story constitute an actual creation of existence? These and many other questions remain unanswered and are left to be teased out by the reader.

If a line can be imagined separating  traditional “story books” from self-consciously aware books pointing at their own conventions, then the story of Tom Trueheart sits squarely on the fence. For all its paradoxes and outwards references, it has none of the biting wit of the satire or pantomime, and can be read simply as a straightforward adventure fable. And this has its own worrying potential. Conventions are so carefully followed that Tom must cheerfully face much teasing from his brothers for being both younger and “different.” He is told by his mother that he must accept this, because “they are wild, and big, and brave, and they’re just toughening you up to be the same.” Heroes are always of the same type, even down to considerations of fashion, and heroines are of course always breathtakingly beautiful. A manservant is described somewhat unflatteringly, although apparently in all seriousness, as a “flunkey.” There is danger that an unsupervised reading of the book could lead, ironically, not to a questioning of stereotypes, but to a reinforcement of them, as Tom does indeed become more like his brothers in some essential respects. Perhaps the most hopeful note of the book is the final realisation of similarity between Tom and his wicked enemy – despite all their efforts and adventures, neither of them is credited with their achievements and both feel the unfairness very keenly.

This is an excellent book for examining the conventions of story, of media and of stereotypes. But it is one that needs to be handled carefully, to avoid the risk of becoming a study in conformity.

2006-11-05