The Wisdom of the Shire by Noble Smith
A Short Guide to a Long and Happy Life
Published by Hodder and Stoughton, June 2013 (Review copy received)
208 pages
ISBN: 978 1 444 75966 2
Review by Mark Yon
It may be difficult for the typical reader of this review to contemplate, but imagine you had to describe and explain the habits, philosophies and nature of JRR Tolkien’s Hobbits to interested parties who hadn’t read Lord of the Rings or the Complete History of Middle Earth?
The Wisdom of the Shire is a book that does this by glossing over the general details of the Middle Earth world, brings them up to a shiny finish, and deliberately lacks the depth of some of the drier, more academic books (such as Christopher Tolkien’s Complete History of Middle Earth series). It is less demanding and very easy to read. Noble writes in an enthusiastic, unintimidating, blog-like style, chatty and approachable, and then uses quite bizarre comparisons at times to make his point. ‘We humans and Hobbits don’t have the luxury of dozing while we’re driving to work like the Elves would be able to do.’, the author proclaims on page 36, for example.
The constant reference points to Noble’s own life will either endear or annoy the reader. For me, curmudgeonly oldster that I am, it was the latter. Statements such as ‘One of my own personal Gollums was a dog’ (page 25), or the fact that Noble was ‘co-executive producer of a film about the looting of archaeological sites in Iraq post-US invasion’, never mind the details about his love for U2’s The Unforgettable Fire album (page 152) personal details about him, his family, his education or his parents, will either give you a better perspective of the person writing the book, and allow you to relate Tolkien’s ideas to your sense of personal reality, or cause you to run off, no doubt screaming, away through the Shire (except that ‘The Shire isn’t a real place. Everyone knows that.’ (page 193))
Clearly others may view the book in a more positive light than myself. Peter S Beagle, a fantasy author of repute, writes an introduction that suggests that this book is an idea ‘whose time has unquestionably come’. (To which my snarky conscience, no doubt possessed by one of my ‘own personal Gollums’, immediately replied, “Well, of course it has: I’m holding a physical copy in my hand.”)
When you actually dig through the morass of inward-looking, self-centred clichés and glib analogies, there are some good points made about JRR Tolkien, his world and his characters. The writer is clearly a fan of the books and his enthusiasm is infectious, although to many readers who have read a lot of the Fantasy genre I doubt they will be as revelatory as the author might suggest. Whilst the books and the films have clearly been important in his life, I’m not sure the casual reader will be as equally enamoured.
The upshot of the book seems to be that there are aspects of Hobbit society that we could (and should) utilise if we are to lead happier and more fulfilled lives ourselves, as well as dark shadowy aspects that we should not emulate.
In summary, this is probably one for those who have seen some/all of the films but are unsure whether to take their interest further. The Wisdom of the Shire is an entertaining enough book that is not to be taken too seriously, but rarely mentions anything worth considering more.
It’s one of those ‘hey, guys, did you know….?’ type books that’ll distract the reader for an afternoon, but rarely trouble them further. But then perhaps that’s its point.
Mark Yon, May 2013
