The Wonderful O

I was thrilled to learn that there were a couple James Thurber books on the 1001 Books list. I was additionally thrilled to see that they are very short books (an entirely different world than that of the Middlemarches and Les Miserabless of the list).

My library puts this book into Adult Fiction, but it's the kind of read that YA or even younger could enjoy. It's got a fairy-tale vibe to it: two dastardly pirate-type characters take over an island, looking for buried treasure. When they can't find the treasure, they settle for removing any object or animal whose name contains the letter "o"; they dictate that the language will be changed to outlaw any letter "o."

The book is about censorship; it's about fighting back against occupation show more and unjust situations. The writing is top-notch; the language has a rhythm and beauty to it, and at times it's almost poetry, as well as a paean to vocabulary. It's funny, illluminating, and invigorating. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read for me.

Removing the "O"s from words renders most everything unintelligible:

"They are swing chas. What is slid? What is left that's slace? We are begne and webegne. Life is bring and brish. Even schling is flish. Animals in the z are less lacnic than we. Vices are filled with paths and scial intercurse is baths. Let us gird up ur lins like lins and rt the hrrr and ust the afs."

"What nannibickering is this?" cried the blacksmith. "What is this gibberish?"

"English," said Andreus, "without it's O's." show less

A fable for all ages that would be *wonderful* as a family read-aloud. Beyond the crazy tongue-twisters created by taking the letters O out of our words, the language itself is brilliant... well, of course, it's Thurber. I'm not sure the plot is amazing, and the characters definitely aren't (only one female, a young woman who does happen to be the hero but is still not any more defined than the other stock characters). But the premise, and the development thereof, and the word-play, oh my.

Educational, too, as deciphering the words will fix the spelling of them in the reader's mind.

I want a box set of Thurber's five fables to read over and over....

Key words to live by, both in the book and in our own troubled times:

Hope. Love. Valor. show more Freedom.

"... a man could say boo to a goose, and tell the difference between to lose and too loose." show less

What a wonderful little story all about O!

An ominous character named Black arrives on an island called Ooroo (soon to be changed to R). He shares with a sailor that his mother got stuck in a porthole and they couldn't pull her in, so they had to push her out. The trauma of this was so unbearable that Black decides to be rid of the letter O - I'm assuming this is because a porthole is a circular shape, but this part was a little fuzzy and maybe could've been expanded on.

However, Thurber writes his stories with a rhyme and rhythm throughout, never knowing when you're going to inadvertently read a rhyming sentence or two. I came across words I'd never heard before. I loved how even animals without an O in their name, were still linked to show more the Latin categorical name, like spiders are arthropods!

I just had to add my favourite quotes from this book; there simply wasn't enough available on Goodreads to capture the fun silliness and wordplay this story is full of.

It's a fun little story that teaches children about words and nouns and plurals. It's safe to say that I won't be able to not notice the amount of words with O's in them after reading this.

I know that I'm not alone in wondering why two of Thurber's children's stories (The 13 Clocks) were on the 1'001 books to read before you die list', but I get it now. It's an enjoyable and quick read that shows the fun you can have with words. show less

first line: "Somewhere a ponderous tower clock slowly dropped a dozen strokes into the gloom."

What happens when a particular letter is denied an island's citizens? When using it is deemed criminal activity? Writer James Thurber (NB, his name lacks said illicit letter!) tells us exactly this in his well-penned, whimsical children's tale.

Wow. Who could foresee how tough avoiding "o" would become?

Anyway, this book is fun -- silly but with a message of hope, valor, love, and other "o" words. Great to read out loud, with lots of wordplay not unlike that in Mark Dunn's Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters.

Two men backed by a ship's crew land on a pleasant little island where the inhabitants choose not to fight back, but rather acquiesce to their presence, but things get too hard to bear when one of the men begins issuing edicts about the letter O. First they destroy things with the O in their name. Then they out and out ban words with the letter O in them. When the gings-n becme t hard t bear, and the peple must get rid of the men. [Trans: When the goings-on become too hard to bear...]

James Thurber, as a children's author at least, has me entirely enchanted. It started with a chance crossing with his book The White Deer, and expanded with my discovery of The Thirteen Clocks. And it is not hard to say that The Wonderful O cemented the show more deal. I adore his writing. One of the most attractive aspects is the simplicity. It reminded me, to be honest, of The Phantom Tolbooth [Juster], because when something happens in the world of the book, it just happens. It requires no explanation that these things are possible or likely, and harkens back to the joy of the willing suspension of disbelief--because these things are happening and these people are responding, you don't really need to know how or why this very simple and non-magical seeming world has an enchanted castle. It just does. And there is much delight to be had in this.

The Wonderful O only about eight or so pages long, and has a delightfully musical cadence to much of the text. As I read through last night, I felt compelled to be reading it aloud because my mind's ear caught rythms and rhymes scattered throughout the conversations and brief periods of exposition. In the lists of things being destroyed or outlawed, especially, you can find it.

Being a very brief eighty pages or so, the book is well worth the short time to read it. show less

Z wanted to read this for two days' pretty much straight through . . . and we did. What a lovely, brilliant, funny book. Honoring language and freedom and hope and love and literature has never been so thrilling or wonderful. This is a pleasure to read aloud and, apparently, to listen to (especially if you have a kid who's familiar with a wide range of animals, their Latin classifications - all of those "O's" - and characters from literature, both high and low).

Update: 7/2012 - Re-read this after the boy didn't remember much of the first go-around. And he loves it even more.

While James Thurber might be best known for his wonderfully illustrated short stories, especially The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Other Pieces, he penned some tales for children, and The Wonderful O is one. Like the best children’s stories though — think The Chronicles of Narnia, The Book Thief, The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, and The Magic Thief — The Wonderful O will appeal to adults who still enjoy some whimsy in their lives.

Just about anyone could have predicted that banning words containing the letter O on an island named Oonoo would be folly. However, Thurber’s execution, replete with treasure-hunting pirates and canny islanders, keeps the book fresh and funny, entertaining for the young and young at heart show more alike, while Marc Simont’s illustrations are a pure delight.

Special thanks to Manny Rayner for bringing this book to my attention, despite his name’s sorry lack of O’s. show less