The Wild Things by Dave Eggers - Book Review

Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and What is the What and Founder of the literary magazine McSweeney's, gives us a monstrously fleshed out version of the classic children's book Where the Wild Things Are. Does The Wild Things work? I say it could be a perfect fit for the child in you, like a warm wolf costume, especially for this time of year when we often are caught remembering as we watch children put on their costumes again.

The Wild Things is perhaps -- though I may say so wildly at this moment -- a 300-page masterpiece that matches the 9-sentence version Maurice Sendak wrote so many years ago. Of course, it all depends if you're willing to think as a child again when you read it. Dave Eggers helps the reader do so with the wonderfully conflicted Max, all dangerously mischievous and spiteful boy, full of vim and vigor. He lives with his divorced mother and teenage sister as a lone cub who's wondering if he's the only one who knows how to truly have fun anymore...or if anyone really gets him or loves him at all.

After dowsing his sister's room with buckets of water after she "leaves him to die" and getting into a fight with his mother, Max feels he doesn't have a home anymore and runs away. His run takes him through the woods, to a boat, across a lake, and onto an island where he can wrestle with the monsters in his mind as well as the ones who inhabit this new adventurous place. He declares himself king of these beasts, befriends the reckless Carol, warms up to the curious Katherine, and deals with Judith, Alexander and the other beasts that make up his kingdom. Pile ons, mud-slinging fights, and fort buildings are enjoyed and Max feels at home...well, for a little while. There soon occurs a growing unease in his relationship with the wild things in that they never seem fully pleased or satisfied with him, and he begins to wonder what their true intentions for him are. Will he stay and brave the possibility of one day disappointing them or perhaps even get consumed by them? Or will he flee for another safety, one that he may have had before all along?

To transform a visually classic book for children into an existential story for adults about childhood is no easy task. Has Eggers done it? I'm not sure. But if I may say so again ever so wildly, I think he just might have.