October 16, 2009

• the treehorn trilogy

  

  i love going to the library to browse through the 25¢ book sale section.  i have found some interesting books along the way.  last weekend, my friends and i got to visit the angels and accordions on-site performance at greenwood cemetery in brooklyn.  dancers weaved through the cemetery and led us on a two-hour tour of the magnificent space.  at one point, an "angel" dressed in white was draped over a tomb, reminding me of the old edward gorey illustrations on mystery! theatre.  remember those?  it made me really want to read this book i picked up from a library sale called treehorn's wish.

  though illustrated by edward gorey, it's written by florency parry heide.  in true tongue-in-cheek fashion, she recounts the story of an overlooked and sadly neglected boy named treehorn.  in treehorn's wish, it is his birthday, and all he would like is a birthday cake, but his parents are too busy with "adult" things and barely acknowledge treehorn on his special day.  though this should be a sad story, treehorn does not wallow in his sorry state of affairs, but stumbles through his day absorbed in his boyhood fancy of presents, cakes and candles.  it's only the subsuming dramatic irony of a reader knowing that this situation is amiss that adds the last overtone of cynical humour to this story.  edward gorey's illustrations provide the perfect visual narrative for heide's not-so-sweet story.

  i'm currently debating whether or not to buy the rest of trilogy because the brooklyn library does not seem to know of treehorn's existence!  (gasp!)  but further research showed me that edward gorey has illustrated a number of grim stories, and i'm not sure i could stop at only three.

  • 6:26 pm
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