Book Review: A Mickey Mouse Reader by Garry Apgar

ISBN: 1628461039
Published: October 1st, 2014
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Read from August 23rd to 27th, 2015
Synopsis from Goodreads:

Ranging from the playful, to the fact-filled, and to the thoughtful, this collection tracks the fortunes of Walt Disney's flagship character. From the first full-fledged review of his screen debut in November 1928 to the present day, Mickey Mouse has won millions of fans and charmed even the harshest of critics. Almost half of the eighty-one texts in "A Mickey Mouse Reader" document the Mouse's rise to glory from that first cartoon, "Steamboat Willie," through his seventh year when his first color animation, "The Band Concert," was released. They include two important early critiques, one by the American culture critic Gilbert Seldes and one by the famed English novelist E. M. Forster.
Articles and essays chronicle the continued rise of Mickey Mouse to the rank of true icon. He remains arguably the most vivid graphic expression to date of key traits of the American character--pluck, cheerfulness, innocence, energy, and fidelity to family and friends. Among press reports in the book is one from June 1944 that puts to rest the urban legend that "Mickey Mouse" was a password or code word on D-Day. It was, however, the password for a major pre-invasion briefing.
Other items illuminate the origins of "Mickey Mouse" as a term for things deemed petty or unsophisticated. One piece explains how Walt and brother Roy Disney, almost single-handedly, invented the strategy of corporate synergy by tagging sales of Mickey Mouse toys and goods to the release of Mickey's latest cartoons shorts. In two especially interesting essays, Maurice Sendak and John Updike look back over the years and give their personal reflections on the character they loved as boys growing up in the 1930s.

Review:

This book is a collection of articles that have been written about Mickey from the time he was first created to present-day. They're divided by time period and create a really great way of seeing the way Mickey evolved over time and the changes to Walt Disney's story that happened as time progressed.

While it's definitely possibly to sit down and read the book cover to cover (I did), I think the vast majority of people would enjoy it as more of a coffee table book where they pick it up and read one of the articles here or there. If you read it all at once, you do get a bit of repetition with the articles, which is cool because it helps you see trends in the way Mickey and Disney were talked about at different times, but I understand that some people would find that boring if they were reading the whole book straight through.

I'd recommend this book to any Disney fans, even casual ones, who are interested in reading about Mickey throughout different time periods. The book as a whole creates a very valuable resource for anyone wanting to learn more about Mickey.

I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.