- by Owen Morton
I thought that I ought to start the year as I mean to continue - with inanity - and what could be more inane than choosing to review Jim Hedgehog's Supernatural Christmas, by Russell Hoban, as if it were a serious piece of literature? On the other hand, if this article turns out to be not altogether amusing, I apologise and assure you that this is not the way I mean the year to continue. I also thought that I'd better write an article now, as I'm going back to university tomorrow and probably won't have the time over the week to write anything. In addition to this, I have the scanner here, which meant I could scan in the above picture, and another one which will be featured further down. I originally intended to scan the whole thing in and let you read it for yourselves, then read my review, but it would probably have taken up more free space than I actually have on my site, so you're just going to have to cope with probably not having ever read this masterpiece.
I'll start by summarising the text. This would require reading it again, an experience which is very painful, so I'll skip actually doing this and reiterate what I can remember from when I picked it up a couple of weeks ago and read it then. Jim Hedgehog is a rather greedy hedgehog. His favourite Christmas activity is eating lots and lots of food and then watching the film, 'The Revolting Blob'. This film is on without fail every year, but on this occasion, the film changes, and the Blob starts telling Jim that he's fed up of being in the film, and that Jim can do it instead. Then - and this is the really incredible bit - the Blob sucks Jim into the TV, and itself appears in Jim's place on the sofa! Jim's parents can't tell the difference, and when the TV is turned off, Jim can't see what's happening in his house anymore. He is mistaken in the film for the Blob, so he goes into hiding in the sewers. When he's there, his echo tells him that the only way out is by walking through the sewers and not eating anything. All the way through the holiday, Jim does just that, even though he is assaulted at every turn by flying doughnuts and the like. When he re-emerges, he goes home to find the Blob has gone, and he resolves to stop being so greedy in future.
It's certainly an interesting idea, but I feel obliged to point out the many plot holes. Firstly, Jim's parents must be terminally thick if they can't tell the difference between Jim and the Blob. Okay, they're both fat, but look at the picture on the cover. The Blob is a pale pink kind of colour and would appear to be merely a round, well, blob with arms and legs, and eyes and a mouth in the middle. Jim, by contrast, has a head where his eyes and mouth reside (and moreover, he has a nose as well). In addition to this, he isn't pink, he's totally white; he wears clothes, and also - this is the real giveaway - has spikes on his head. How could Jim's parents not notice?
This is either an unforgivable plot hole, or there is a deeper meaning. Perhaps Hoban wishes to convey to us the dangers of overeating, and he suggests that those who eat too much could be mistaken for blobs. This is obviously not true in real life, but as Hoban is using literature to put his message across, a bit of exaggeration is certainly permissible as it does convey exactly what he means. This idea is backed up by the sound of the end of the book, which feels very much like a moral: ""Actually, I don't think I'll be watching TV today," said Jim, and went out jogging before breakfast." The suggestion is that Jim has well and truly learnt his lesson from his experience. The book is almost akin to one of Aesop's fables, although of course the moral is rather obvious to see, in contrast to the fables of Aesop, where the true meaning was often very well hidden.
The second plot hole comes when Jim's echo speaks to him and doesn't just repeat what Jim said, in a manner most unusual in echoes. Hoban realises that some readers will not accept this and puts in the following dialogue:
AN ECHO, WHY AREN'T YOU SAYING WHAT
I SAY?"
"What's the good of us both saying the same
thing?" said the echo."
and while this may be enough to satisfy the younger readers of this novel, older members of the audience will realise that this is not actually an explanation, more a way of avoiding the question. Perhaps this is not a plot hole per se, more a lost opportunity. It is likely that in later chapters (or perhaps sequels), Hoban meant to explore more thoroughly the nature of the echo - maybe revealing that it wasn't an echo at all, more a hidden benefactor who did not wish to see Jim fail. Without the echo imparting valuable information to Jim in Chapter 3, Jim would not know what he had to do to escape. The echo thus plays a very important yet mysterious part in the novel. It brings to mind the character of Diggory Venn in Thomas Hardy's 'The Return of the Native', a mysterious person who traversed Egdon Heath, doing good deeds for Thomasin Yeobright even though such good deeds were contrary to Venn's own purpose. He did this out of his love for Thomasin; perhaps the echo in 'Jim Hedgehog's Supernatural Christmas' is in love with Jim. It is probably something we shall never know, sadly, which can only be regarded as a missed chance. Hoban clearly intended something for the echo, but it is likely publishing deadlines meant that he was unable to fulfil his ambitions in this area.
All in all, 'Jim Hedgehog's Supernatural Christmas' is a masterly piece of work. The few criticisms I level at it are only minor quibbles. It is obvious that Hoban can do no wrong! The only thing I really have difficulty understanding is why Hoban felt the need to have his hero be a hedgehog. It doesn't seem to serve any dramatic need. The moral idea mentioned earlier - that if you eat too much you may be mistaken for a revolting blob - would perhaps work better if Jim was actually a blob already, just not a revolting one. This would really hit the message home when his parents could not tell the difference between him and the Revolting Blob: it would emphasise his revoltingness if he were already a blob. But, again, this is only a minor quibble. An amazing 8 out of 10 for this novel!