Reiner Zimnik

That a children's book about devastation, war, isolation and choppy relationships can still be charming is a feat in itself. Excellently chaotic pen-and-ink illustrations help drag the reader through any overly bleak spots, though you still have to question what kind of child is seriously going to enjoy this. I guess you could say Zimnik's staking out similar ground to Dino Buzatti's Bears Invasion of Sicily insofar as that seemed to be one of the more disarming products of the Italian epic show more tradition, while, by the same token, The Crane seems to be right at home amongst his fellow domestic magical-pessimists like Jünger and Grass. show less

"Well, there was a man once, and he had a bear . . ." begins this story about a life long friendship between man and beast. The Bearman and the bear understand each other. Together they travel all over the country, "a part of the highway like the knotty old apple trees and whitehorn bushes," as they go from village to village, where they play music and juggle and dance and the children are always happy to see them. At night they sleep in the open, and before they do the Bearman tells a story show more and plays a beautiful melody on his horn for the bear and for God, a melody so beautiful that all the animals in the forest raise their heads and the leaves themselves stop rustling and listen.
And yet the Bearman and the bear have the jealous members of the Duda family, who are thieves and tricksters; and even more than that, the dogs. And when the Bearman dies, the bear must retreat into the wilderness for safety—until, after many adventures, he meets a new a boy. show less

Well, I do not care for the illustrations, except for the one in which our two heroes playfully, but with the solemn demeanor of a toddler, stomp the thin ice of puddles. If I were friends with Dear God I'd probably appreciate the shame of the topless dancers more, and the other sad bits, too. I can't find Dudas online, so I'm guessing, from context and related words, that they are Romany, and unfortunately this family of them is apparently meant to be representative of the whole 'nation' show more and is therefore prejudiced.

I do like the marking of the seasons. Winter is when the farmers play curling. Spring is when "the colorful birds come from Africa" and the apple trees bloom. "The first frost came. A hundred thousand little spiders put a spell on the land and the colorful birds flew back to Africa."

I wish I could appreciate it more. There's clearly something very wise going on in this fable, but I can't quite catch the allegory. I might have loved it more when it, and I, were young (translation from the year I was 8). show less

So far it is my personal opinion that the reissued 'children's' books of the NYRB are emperors without clothes, so to speak. ?�I don't like Jenny Cat, and I neither like this nor think it a children's book. ?áIt occupies the landscape somewhere between The Little Prince and Salvador Dali, whereas I had hoped it was something like a cross between The Pushcart War and Rene' Magritte. ?áBut hey, I'm not a New Yorker, oh so sophisticated, over-educated, torn between angst and show more existentialism. ?áI'm a simple girl from a country town in the midwest, and my taste in books reflects that. ?áIf you're hip or chic, you might like this. show less