Gregory Maguire (2:23)

Well, it's crazy. It's broken. It doesn't make any sense. Act one is traditional tale that you might find in Grimm with the small, powerless Clara fighting the great king of the mice. And that makes sense. And it's dramatically strong, and we're rooting for the small girl. And all that is great. Then act Two comes the most gorgeous ballet music in the world. But it's as if we're sitting in an overstuffed living room looking at the photographs of our grandparents trip around the world. It has nothing to do with the great drama of act One. It's all square. And I wanted to know what I could do with this story to make the two parts speak to each other.

Lulu Garcia Navarro (3:04)

Is that what this was about? I mean, your book is a sort of prequel to this. It tells the story of Dirk Drosselmeier, the powerful toymaker. And when we meet him, he is in dire straits. Tell us about that.

Gregory Maguire (3:18)

Well, Dirk Drosselmeier is a foundling, or that's what he's told. And he lives in the Bavarian forest. He's born about 1800 or so, so he's about 8 years old in 1808. Now, you may know that just about at this time, the Grimm brothers were combing the woods of Bavaria and Baden looking for those stories that would really cement German romanticism and the German romantic fairy tale in our minds for the next 200 some years. So Dirk Drosselmeyer is born right at the heart of. Of the German fairy tale, in a sense. And I decided to take his life story as a small, poor boy in the backwoods, as it were, of Europe, and see how he grows up to be able to enter the salons of Munich and to be the one person who can stand between a little girl and the great darkness threatening her on Christmas Eve.

Lulu Garcia Navarro (4:15)

So you take this and you have all these different characters show up, and indeed, the Brothers Grimm make an appearance. And we find out how he gets the eyepatch.

Gregory Maguire (4:24)

We find out how he gets the eyepatch. And indeed, the only thing we know about Godfather Drosselmeyer from the stage is that he's tall and leering and a little menacing and a little helpful, and he's got this eyepatch. So my job as a novelist is to say, that's not just a throwaway eye patch. That eye patch has some meaning. How did he get to need it? And what does that say about his character in general?

Lulu Garcia Navarro (4:48)

Yeah, well, we're not going to give it away, but what is so intriguing about this tale is that he's living inside a fairy tale. Then he goes to the real world of German romanticism In the early 19th century, as you mentioned. And the real world is very hard and dark.

Gregory Maguire (5:04)

Well, the real world is hard and dark. And I don't. I think you've noticed that, Lulu, these days.

Lulu Garcia Navarro (5:08)

Yes.

Gregory Maguire (5:09)

And we seem to need both to stare with unblinking eyes at the reality of the hard world in which we live. And we also seem to need the comfort of those tales that we got when we were children. That said, if we fight hard enough and if we endure, we just might survive. If we remember the magic of our childhoods, we might be able to find in that the strength to carry on through our own hard and difficult adult lives.

Lulu Garcia Navarro (5:38)

Yeah, because fairy tales are often viewed as a kind of therapy for kids. Right. Where they can process the fears and dangers of adulthood in a fanciful way. Is that what you're trying to do for your adult readers?

Gregory Maguire (5:51)

It's certainly what I'm trying to do for myself. I like a quote by Roger Scruton, British moral philosopher, which says, the consolation of the imaginary is not imaginary consolation. And so when I ask myself, well, why am I not in public policy? Why am I not a brain surgeon? Why am I writing fairy tales for adults? I remember that giving people consolation through the literary arts is indeed a grown up job, and that's what I try to do.

Lulu Garcia Navarro (6:21)

It struck me also when I was reading this book that, you know, Drosselmeyer in the ballet is such a powerful figure. He is the center of the magic, but in the book he is the least powerful character in many ways. Is there a message in that?

Gregory Maguire (6:36)

I think we often overlook the people who are really pulling the strings. And sometimes it's the people on the margins of society who have the most to do to pick up and placate those who really need the help. It's kindergarten teachers who are the ones who really catch the scowl of worry on the brow of one of their charges, who is able to lean in right then, right there and do something useful for that human soul. And I think Drosselmeyer is one of those characters too.

Lulu Garcia Navarro (7:07)

Do you have children?

Gregory Maguire (7:08)

I do. I have three adopted children.

Lulu Garcia Navarro (7:11)

Have you taken them to see the Nutcracker?

Gregory Maguire (7:13)

I have not taken them, but my daughter, the youngest child, has been about 10 times.

Lulu Garcia Navarro (7:19)

I was just curious if this was sort of a family tradition that had been passed down.

Gregory Maguire (7:24)

Here's the part that is a family tradition. I have 40 nutcrackers in the basement. They live in plastic crates. And just about now we haul the crates out of the basement and we line the staircase with nutcrackers large and small. The largest of them are about three feet tall, and the smallest of them you could hang on the Christmas tree with a little gold string if you wanted. They are an army of stern and scowling and bearded defenders of some faith or other. We're not sure we can name the faith, but we're glad they're there.

Lulu Garcia Navarro (7:56)

Gregory Maguire is the author of Hidden A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker. Thank you so much for joining us.

Gregory Maguire (8:03)

Thank you. Lulu Foreign.

Andrew Limbong (8:13)

Hey, Andrew, here from NPR's Book of the Day podcast. The end of the year is a great time to catch up on some reading on our special series, Books We've Loved. We revisited some old reads like Pride and Prejudice, Gone Girl, Dune to see if they held up as classics. You can find all 10 episodes now in NPR's Book of the Day podcast feed on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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