By now I have read it maybe 5 times and it is the book I have read the most times (possibly tied with the first few Harry Potter books). Since I read it the first time, I have read it once a year and about the same time each year (like music, books follow a mood inspired by the seasons). The good bits are always Sophie and her cleaning, Howl and how funny he is, the confusing and complex storyline which I still can't seem to grasp, and the magic and its uses. How light and how funny it is. I rarely read and love light and funny books.
This time around what struck me especially were two things.
First the self-fulfilling-ness, independent, subjectively oriented curse and magic of Sophie, and secondly, how kind they all are to each other, without ever really aknowledging how kind they are.
The first is wonderful, naturally. Sophie is herself in control of her curse and she is the one who can release herself - not the great magician Howl or him as a romantic object or some change of heart by the Wicked Witch of the Waste. She wears her curse more or less freely and she can discard it by herself, when she is ready to be seen and to be brave. It is so wonderful. The way she hides behind her old skin until she realises she does not want to hide anymore.
I love Sophie and her heroic role.
The second is touching and funny and lovely. It is somehow so realistic, in a novel full of seven-league books and happy endings. Most of (the lovely part of) life is not, I suppose, about grand and ostentatious gestures, but about doing favours and seeing what someone else might need or just would like, and do that for them. Not expecting gratitude. Just doing it out of kindness and doing it because it will be accepted and maybe repaid. Even Howl, selfish, showy, admiration-craving Howl, does so many things for Sophie and Michael that it's sometimes breathtaking.
This is the thing about this magical book. The characters are so wonderful. I am genuinely in love with them all. They are far from perfect but all very sympathetic. Howl becoming greater because of his vanity and need for validation and cowardice. Sophie becoming relatable for her grumpiness and exasperation and inability to see herself. Michael being too naïve for his own good, but also romantic and economical. Calcifer being - what - a demon as well as a protector of hearts and secrets.
Even though I read it for the fifth time I still felt that post-book depression. What is it I want and miss from it? The romantic storyline? The unbelievable character Howl? The strength and warmth Sophie possesses? Or is it just the magic and the climax and the conclusion of it; that it's a story and would only life be a story!? Whatever it is, I look forward to reading it again in about a year.
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