Algonquin Cat
Jan. 27th, 2003 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
truepennyI had an erratum to confess anyway. The author is Val SchaffNer. I always spell it wrong.
And since this seems to be the book that is least familiar, I thought I should say a little more about it, so no one feels that they have been cruelly Led Astray by it being on the same list with Swordspoint and Watership Down.
Algonquin Cat is a children's book. The illustrations are by Hilary Knight (of Eloise fame), and they are to die for. Despite the fact that it is a children's book, I find it actually much more satisfying to read as an adult, because I get all the jokes about actors and publishers and writers and the Algonquin Round Table. The book has a very sly and subtle sense of humor, and is perfectly self-aware.
It and Watership Down are the only two animal protagonist books I like (leaving aside The Wind in the Willows, which is really about little Englishmen in animal suits). Tailchaser's Song is an abysmal effort to do Watership Down with a roguish wink to the audience--not as honest as tongue-in-cheek but also refusing to take its own premise with the gravity which such endeavors require--and I resent the blatant manipulative tear-jerkeriness of Black Beauty and its ilk. And the animals-with-human-intellect school don't even seem worth the bother. Why write about a cat if it isn't really a cat?
So now at least you have an idea of what you'll find.
And since this seems to be the book that is least familiar, I thought I should say a little more about it, so no one feels that they have been cruelly Led Astray by it being on the same list with Swordspoint and Watership Down.
Algonquin Cat is a children's book. The illustrations are by Hilary Knight (of Eloise fame), and they are to die for. Despite the fact that it is a children's book, I find it actually much more satisfying to read as an adult, because I get all the jokes about actors and publishers and writers and the Algonquin Round Table. The book has a very sly and subtle sense of humor, and is perfectly self-aware.
It and Watership Down are the only two animal protagonist books I like (leaving aside The Wind in the Willows, which is really about little Englishmen in animal suits). Tailchaser's Song is an abysmal effort to do Watership Down with a roguish wink to the audience--not as honest as tongue-in-cheek but also refusing to take its own premise with the gravity which such endeavors require--and I resent the blatant manipulative tear-jerkeriness of Black Beauty and its ilk. And the animals-with-human-intellect school don't even seem worth the bother. Why write about a cat if it isn't really a cat?
So now at least you have an idea of what you'll find.
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Date: 2003-01-28 06:32 am (UTC)