Dear Mili

(1988) by Wilhelm Grimm. Translated by Ralph Manheim. Illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Michael di Capua Books. (21 March 2007).

28 March 2007

The text of this book is from a recently discovered manuscript by Wilhelm Grimm. The dust-jacket blurbs make it out to be a previously undiscovered fairy tale to complement “Cinderella,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and “Red Riding Hood.” But actually, the story here is much closer to religious allegory than what you’d expect to find in a normal Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale—and this is an excellent vehicle for Maurice Sendak, whose talent is to mix images from the worlds of adulthood and childhood and to invite readers from each side of the age divide to look at the details from their counterparts’ perspective, details they normally would filter out. This is a story of the enduring love of a mother for her lost child. Images of trees and flowers, of spreading roots and ruined chapels and crumbling tombstones fill every page and give us a sense of the power time has both to deepen our sorrows, and to bring about a sea change into ripeness and redemption.