Behind The Blue Curtain Review

By Laura Wallace


There are books that will be forgotten immediately you close the last page. Others will have a lasting impact on your reading career years down the line. Behind the Blue Curtain is a marvelous title by Steven Millhauser. It features a young boy as the protagonist and opens as the boy makes a trip to the movie theater. He is usually accompanied by the father for these Saturday night movies but this time it is different.

Boys at his age are comfortable being accompanied by their father. However, the protagonist chooses a unique path where he goes alone. His desire is to understand how the world works. He is interested in insight and knowledge as opposed to material wealth. This is an outstanding trait for a boy of his age.

The narrative style used by the author makes it easy for readers to relate with the experience of this boy. It is told in first person, bringing to live the story as though it is happening now or you are hearing it as a narrative as opposed to reading. The challenges and quest of this main character are easy to relate to. According to the narrator, he feels as though the father is hiding something or being protective. This signifies a boy on a mission.

Steven is very clever with the setting of his story. He has deliberately concealed it, leaving you to guess that it is in summer at a movie theater. According to the description, it is the twentieth century. Though the main character is a boy, the target reader and ideas explored are not for boyhood fantasies. They are meant for a mature audience and not the flip flop of boyhood.

A woman appears midway and is described as a reflection, to add a twist to the tale. The emphasis on mirrors by Steven is exemplary and stylistically ingenious. Though the boy and the woman portray conflicting personalities, their personalities and fate reflect on each other. There are similarities that are stylistically positioned to point at Mirror Reflections as a hidden literary image.

Conflict is excellently displayed in a character who has to choose between living the false bubble or the enlightened reality. If the old is to go, death must occur. This happens as he falls asleep in the office of the theater janitor. Rising up or reborn is signified by his awakening in the form of a dream. This is a resolution of prevailing conflict and justification of enlightenment.

The theme of transformation is perfectly explored in his desire to shed boyhood ignorance and gain knowledge or light. The author uses the image of light and walking through the candelabras to signify this transformation. The writer has also perfectly developed his characters especially the description given to this boy. The reader has a clear picture of who he or she is dealing with and can judge the actions of this boy in the required fashion.

The mode of narration makes the story one of the best you will ever read. The curious nature of this main character also reflects in almost everyone at a certain point in life. This makes for a universal read. With well-developed characters and themes, you have a perfect narrative for both leisure reading as well as academic pursuit.




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