Book Review - Waking Walt by Larry Pontius
Category Book Review Larry Pontius Waking Walt
I first ran across the title Waking Walt by Larry Pontius a few years back, and knew immediately that I wanted to read it. But alas, it was not to be found at our local library. I parked it on my Amazon wish list as a personal reminder so I didn't forget it. The situation changed when I discovered the Interlibrary Loan feature that allows you to request books through your local library, and they can be shipped from any *other* library that happens to be in the program and has the book. Oh, happy days! Of course, you *knew* this had to be the first book I'd test it out on... :)
Waking Walt is an enjoyable novel, especially so for Disney fans. There's a oft-repeated rumor that Walt was never actually cremated, but that he was cryogenically frozen so as to be brought back to life when a cure for his lung cancer was found. In this book, that rumor is indeed fact, and forty years after Walt was frozen, it's time to bring him back to life. There's two reasons to do so, actually... One, there's an experimental cancer treatment that appears to be the silver bullet that everyone has been searching for. And second, a corporate raider is about to take over the Disney company, and he'll break it up and sell it off to the highest bidders. A secret Circle of Disney insiders, those who know about and protect the secret of Walt's state, can't let that happen, so they contact all the right people, hold their collective breaths, and start the reanimation process. But the corporate raider catches wind of this development, knows it will completely destroy his plans to take over the company, and decides that Walt should really stay in the land of the dead... permanently. The story then revolves around Walt's reintroduction to the last 40 years of history, as well as the efforts to keep him alive long enough to save the company and protect the Disney legend and icon.
The Disney aspect aside, I thought it was an entertaining read, and touched on the issues of what it would be like to drop someone back into society with the last 40 years being a complete mystery to them. Things that we take for granted would be considered almost magic to them, and the dramatic shift in social standards would be frightening. It's even more magnified when you realize what a dreamer Walt Disney was, and how he would compare his thoughts of the future to what actually turned out. Now if you're a Disney fan, the book takes on a whole new level of enjoyment, as you can more strongly identify with Walt's vision of the future and of Disney as a whole. His mood swings over dreams vs. reality ring true, and it causes you to look at the Disney magic in a new way, through the eyes of someone who is seeing it physically for the first time.
This may not be the easiest book to get ahold of, but it was worth the wait for me. I'm sure my next trip to Disney, whenever that might be, won't be quite the same...
I first ran across the title Waking Walt by Larry Pontius a few years back, and knew immediately that I wanted to read it. But alas, it was not to be found at our local library. I parked it on my Amazon wish list as a personal reminder so I didn't forget it. The situation changed when I discovered the Interlibrary Loan feature that allows you to request books through your local library, and they can be shipped from any *other* library that happens to be in the program and has the book. Oh, happy days! Of course, you *knew* this had to be the first book I'd test it out on... :)
Waking Walt is an enjoyable novel, especially so for Disney fans. There's a oft-repeated rumor that Walt was never actually cremated, but that he was cryogenically frozen so as to be brought back to life when a cure for his lung cancer was found. In this book, that rumor is indeed fact, and forty years after Walt was frozen, it's time to bring him back to life. There's two reasons to do so, actually... One, there's an experimental cancer treatment that appears to be the silver bullet that everyone has been searching for. And second, a corporate raider is about to take over the Disney company, and he'll break it up and sell it off to the highest bidders. A secret Circle of Disney insiders, those who know about and protect the secret of Walt's state, can't let that happen, so they contact all the right people, hold their collective breaths, and start the reanimation process. But the corporate raider catches wind of this development, knows it will completely destroy his plans to take over the company, and decides that Walt should really stay in the land of the dead... permanently. The story then revolves around Walt's reintroduction to the last 40 years of history, as well as the efforts to keep him alive long enough to save the company and protect the Disney legend and icon.
The Disney aspect aside, I thought it was an entertaining read, and touched on the issues of what it would be like to drop someone back into society with the last 40 years being a complete mystery to them. Things that we take for granted would be considered almost magic to them, and the dramatic shift in social standards would be frightening. It's even more magnified when you realize what a dreamer Walt Disney was, and how he would compare his thoughts of the future to what actually turned out. Now if you're a Disney fan, the book takes on a whole new level of enjoyment, as you can more strongly identify with Walt's vision of the future and of Disney as a whole. His mood swings over dreams vs. reality ring true, and it causes you to look at the Disney magic in a new way, through the eyes of someone who is seeing it physically for the first time.
This may not be the easiest book to get ahold of, but it was worth the wait for me. I'm sure my next trip to Disney, whenever that might be, won't be quite the same...
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Comments
How appropriate - Love it
Posted by John Lindsay At 07:53:28 On 22/06/2009 | - Website - |
Posted by Duffbert At 08:00:37 On 22/06/2009 | - Website - |
By the way, Waking Walt is available at Amazon.com and can be ordered through any book store.
Best regards,
Larry
Posted by Larry Pontius At 10:46:43 On 29/06/2009 | - Website - |