MAINSTREAM English literature does not really have a place for narratives that include other realities beyond "thereal world". We are the ones who apply the label "magic realism" to South American writing and to be consistent we ought to describe certain short stories by Tolstoy and other Russian prose as "speculative fiction". Our Cartesian insistence on a dualistic reality leaves us in the lurch when it comes to literature that refuses to acknowledge dividing lines between real and imaginary, body and soul, God and man. In the end, work written from this viewpoint is invariably categorised as either children's literature or science fiction/fantasy.
In the first instance, as children's literature, the work will rarely be read or reviewed by adults and will suffer a marginal literary existence despite such recognised classics as Alice in Wonderland and Gulliver's Travels (are these really children's books?). In the second instance, as science fiction/fantasy, despite the quality of authors such as Ursula LeGuin or Ray Bradbury, the work would again be marginalised from mainstream literature while also being lumped indiscriminately with fiction deservedly banished to the lunatic fringe. It's hard to say whether the Mennym series is better or worse off in its present classification as "children's literature", but the fact remains that a generation of adults will have missed these highly original and truly enchanting books.
Mennyms Alive is apparently (but one hopes not) the last of the series after The Mennyms, Mennyms in the Wilderness, Mennyms under Siege and Mennyms Alone. To say that the books describe the lives of a family of rag dolls living precariously amongst us cannot possibly convey the actuality and pathos of the existence with which the author has imbued these dolls. The individual characters, especially that of "the blue Mennym" cut from a different cloth than the others, are startling and touching. In Waugh's unadorned but lyrical and never childish prose, they do indeed come alive: grandparents, parents, teenage daughters and son, twin children and a baby complete with eccentric nanny.
The Mennyms' overwhelming need to protect themselves and their secret arouses primal parental instincts in the reader. Their internecine squabbles and family crises are in turn amusing and disturbing. Their narrow escapes from discovery, their limited mobility and the uncertain nature not only of their day to day lives but of the life force within them can be terrifying. There are priceless moments in all the books, such as the family's first encounter with a human, Albert Pond, in Mennyms in the Wilderness. "Albert looked round at them all. Nine pair of beady eyes stared from cloth faces".
The Mennyms were so bewitched by this close up view of a human being that their dolliness was taking them over . . . The spell was only broken when the terrified young man at the head of the table fell in a faint to the floor." And then of course that exquisitely poignant moment when Albert reads Yeats to the lovely dark haired Pilbeam - "Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths and the family knows he must be expelled from their midst as love can't occur between man and rag doll.
While Mennyms under Siege is the weakest of the set, with a thin plot that is stretched to the limit, Waugh manages to sustain our fascination with the Mennyms from book to book. The latest addition, Mennyms Alive, is one of the strongest stories, adding a new dimension with a human character who suspects the truth but is unable to accept it. It was only when reading this book - in which the Mennyms have been removed from their home and moved out into society (as dolls) - did it occur to me that evil is absent from Waugh's world, though television and newspapers are not. While the Mennyms have to deal with bold children, interfering neighbours, business matters and legal problems, they are never confronted with wickedness per se. Since they ruminate from time to time on the nature of their existence and life itself, one would love to know what they think of the dark side of humanity.
A final word. Waugh has achieved the ultimate goal of every writer and god: she has created a world, and it is good.
