Michael Ende may be best know for The Neverending Story, but my favourite novel of his has always been Momo. In it the young girl Momo sees her friends turn into hollow shadows of themselves as they one by one gets tricked into saving time by mysterious Grey Men. It is a beautiful exploration of the concept of time and have some really disturbing antagonists, I really recommend it!
As Momo is a childhood favourite of mine I would have liked to give you a proper review, but the truth is that I am too tired. Last week was long and stressful and although all went well it left me drained. In fact it left me pretty much like the victims of the Grey Men so perhaps I should have taken the novel’s warning that to save time is to waste life more seriously…
I read that in a book 
Momo is a favorite of mine too! I read it to my son recently as well. It is so easy to feel the effects of the Grey Men in our hectic lives, and good to have a reminder of what is really important.
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I’m happy to hear that, in my opinion it is one of those rare children’s books that are great when you are a kid and even better when you reread them as an adult.
I guess I probably should heed that reminder right now and go out and enjoy the sunshine…
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Oh, reminds me of my youth. Count me in as a fan too. Much better book than Never Ending Story, which I like and I don’t.
The Grey Men have always reminded me of Magritte men without faces and a hat and apple on the face.
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Yes, I haven’t reread The Never Ending Story as an adult but as far as I remember I never really cared for the protagonist. Momo on the other hand is great, and I clearly still need the warning against trying to save time…
The Magritte men do look very much as Grey Men, I haven’t though of them that way before but I agree.
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Sounds intersting nonetheless!
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Thank you, it really is!
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I remember Momo, and indeed the Grey Men were a bit scary 😉
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I haven’t come across Momo but I’m intrigued by the Grey Men. . .
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You may have come across the Grey Men though, and the scary part is that you wouldn’t even remember…
If you ever feel an urge to save time by not doing pleasant things, such as reading a good book or hang out with friends, you should be very suspicious 🙂
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I recently read Momo for the first time and I was very impressed by it! Apart from the brilliant story I also appreciated how seriously Ende takes children’s awareness of what is going on around them where I feel like a lot of authors may have ‘sweetened’ the story a bit. I hope you feel better soon!
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I agree, in my opinion the best children’s books are the ones that can handle difficult topics on a child’s level, but without sweetening things. All my favourite children’s authors, Tove Jansson, Astrid Lindgren, Michael Ende, had that ability.
Thanks for the well-wishes, fortunately I’ve had a quiet week now and feel more or less recovered 🙂
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Glad to hear that!
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