Seraphin – Book Review

Book Review
Seraphin
Written and Illustrated by Philippe Fix
Translated from French by Donald Nicholson-Smith
Published July 9, 2019

Why we chose this book:
I keep my eyes open for translated work. And the story of a builder and inventor has high appeal in this home. Elsewhere Editions provided a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Mom's Review
Seraphin is a book that really stuck with me. T had already read it with his dad and had been telling me, "It's kind of a sad book." I agree, but with a caveat. It is not just sad; it is a thought-provoking commentary on how nature and history are shunned and overrun for the sake of enterprise. When I commented to T that I found it powerful — it had elicited a lot of emotions in me — he told me that he thought it was "too powerful," which is his version of the superlative (rather than indicating an undesirable excess).

Seraphin is a ticket puncher for the Paris metro, but he begins to chafe at the underground monotony. Before long, he is fired for attempting to rescue a butterfly that flew down to the subway platform. In a happy turn of events, he almost immediately inherits an old manor on a substantial piece of land. The house, however, is uninhabitable. This is an opportunity for our optimistic protagonist. He and a friend, Plume, create an almost magical mansion, the likes of which has never been seen. Happiness is short-lived, for Seraphin's land is seized by eminent domain to make way for industrial expansion. The construction workers, police, firefighters, and government officials scoff at his desire to retain the refuge he painstakingly crafted, telling him "how comfortable modern buildings were," and ultimately trying to wrest him from the premises. Seraphin and Plume are unsuccessful in their attempts to protect the home, but they do not surrender. Instead, they create a magical staircase "by placing four stairs together, and then moving the bottom one over to the top, and repeating this time after time." Our heroes cannot save the house from "progress," but they can save themselves.

From the beginning, when Seraphin's attempts to deck his ticket booth in flowers are quashed, to the end, when his home will be demolished, Seraphin's appreciation for natural beauty and creative expression are met with criticism, disdain, and outright antagonism. This reader cannot help but  contemplate the commentary on development today, how we value quick and profitable construction over unique pieces of craftsmanship. A bit more superficially, the illustrations are lovely. As someone who is unqualified to critique art, I will simply say that I was enchanted by everything about Seraphin.

Son's Review
(Age: 4)
On what to know before you read:
"It's a sad and enemies at the end because they tried to solve problems, but it didn't work. That dragon [robot] is super scary for sure."

On the ending:
"I hate the end because there's all bad things happening."

Thoughts after reading:
"It was a too powerful story. I'm gonna be thinking about too much robots, too much construction, like adding more to the city, like adding more to our house.

"I have a lot of ideas after reading this book. Building ideas for building my robot. Like when the vacuum breaks, that would be the time to build my robot, or when the chandelier breaks, or when the hearth breaks. Because they have the pieces we need to build a robot."

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