Groom's book looks at the background of Tolkien's legendarium, the way the text evolved over the years and decades, depiction of Tolkien's work in media, and the applicability of various themes as they apply today. I most enjoyed the history of the changing text. Aragorn was at one point a Hobbit named Trotter! Frodo was Bingo, Bilbo's son! It gave me insight into Tolkien's process of writing, which is to say, he wrote something, and then edited, then edited again. In this book he comes accross, not as a "grand architect", with everything planned in advance, but a tinkerer constantly changing, reworking, and rediscovering his text. Groom reveals how the process took decades, during which finances, overcommittment in work, and general life challenges made it nearly impossible to make progress on the text. I came away with a profound appreciation and wonder that Tolkien actually managed to finish "Lord of the Rings" at all. This, to me, was the most interesting and satisfying part of the book.
I was less entertained by the media explorations, but still found value in the review of the various radio dramas, movies, and game adaptations. (I'm newly inspired to listen to the BBC Radio Drama of Lord of the Rings staring Ian Holm as Frodo.) Groom waxes eloquent on Peter Jackson's interpretation of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. He gives the Hobbit more credit on face value than I would, but I suppose his focus was on the choices made in adaptation and not the quality of the movies as cinema.
The exploration of Tolkien themes, was, in my opinion, the least compelling part of the book. Partly this was because Groom examines not only the books but also the movie adaptations and the things they have to say about war, environmentalism, and death. It's possible that I liked this part the least because I already have my own opinions on the themes and disagreed with Grooms interpretations. I grumbled quite a bit to my partner when the author (offhand, and perhaps as a joke) likens Faramir's resistance group in occupied Ithilien as "terrorism", or how he seemed to think that Orcs deserve sympathy because they would rebel against Sauron if they could. I was amused, more than anything, by the authors continual shots at Bilbo as "the most dishonest character" in Tolkien's legendarium. The reason I picked up the book was I was interested in reading about Tolkien's environmentalism. There is some discussion of that topic here, but it is not the principal focus.
Tolkien in the 21st Century was thought provoking, and surfaced a lot of things I didn't know about the story. It's worth a read!
