false 28748 9 <I>The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip</I> is that rarity, a fable that appeals equally to literate adults and id-crazed kids. Its author, George Saunders, is a Thomas Pynchon-approved, three-time O. Henry Award-winning surrealist writer; its artist, Lane Smith, is the Caldecott-honored illustrator of <I>The Stinky Cheese Man</I> and film designer of <I>James and the Giant Peach</I>. Nothing could evoke Saunders's simple yet extravagant story better than Smith's strange, painterly depictions of the seaside town of Frip, a place of ornery eccentrics and oddball animals. Smith combines some of the virtues of George Grosz, Dr. Seuss, and the Japanese prints called Ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world"). <p> Gappers are baseball-sized, burr-shaped orange creatures with a compulsion to creep up out of the sea and fasten themselves to goats, whom they love. "When a gapper gets near a goat it gives off a continual high-pitched happy shriek of pleasure that makes it impossible for the goat to sleep, and the goats get skinny and stop giving milk," writes Saunders. Since Frip survives by selling goat milk, the children must brush gappers off the herd eight times daily and dump them into the ocean. You simply must see Smith's picture of Capable, the book's plucky heroine, emptying her gapper-sack from a precarious cliff picturesquely menaced by subtly colored waves. You'll be torn between lingering over the gorgeous artwork and flipping the page to see how Capable will ever cope with the gapper invasion of Frip, her obdurately past-obsessed widower papa, and her dumb, mean neighbors (two snooty, boy-obsessed girls and a family of singers who are harder on the ears than a keening gapper attached to the goat of its dreams). This is a slim tale, but unquestionably one quite in keeping with Saunders's prizewinning books. The title story of <I>Pastoralia</I>, for instance, is also a fable involving class struggle and people who get snooty about the difficulties of working with goats. <p> <I>The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip</I> is a grownups' book, a kids' book, an art book, and a cause for countless happy shrieks of pleasure. <I>--Tim Appelo</I> 911606 2000 The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip total:485|5:197|4:174|3:94|2:13|1:7| 485 1996 662 79 4 2 false false Wed Mar 04 11:50:11 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 04 12:17:15 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 27 16:23:53 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 27 16:36:31 -0800 2007
In Frip, people act with blissful ignorance, accepting the world as it is as though they understand it, but the...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat May 31 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 02 07:28:37 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 02 08:30:02 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Aug 29 21:15:56 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 29 21:15:56 -0700 2007
Once in Berkeley this used bookstore had a bunch of leftover c...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat May 12 06:36:50 -0700 2007 Sat May 12 06:40:02 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Tue Jan 22 06:02:19 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 22 06:02:19 -0800 2008
Saunders (Pastoralia) and illustrator Lane Smith (The Stinky Cheese Man, James and the Giant Peach) team up to deliver this cautionary tale about helping your neighbors out of a jam. And while the story wears its moral far...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Wed Sep 05 07:48:14 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 14 07:22:28 -0700 2007
Ostensibly a children's book, we visit the tiny village of Frip, a goat herding community plagued by gappers - baseball-sized creatures with multiple eyes, a shrieking voice and an abiding l...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Feb 07 11:31:40 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 07 19:23:35 -0800 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Wed Nov 19 10:25:13 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 19 10:43:01 -0800 2008 The Little Red Hen. Unfortunately, it is also heavy-handed, deeply cynical, and mean-spirited. The author has a very low view of ordinary people and obviously takes great delight in depicting most of the characters here as despicable...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Jul 16 08:53:09 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 16 08:55:01 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Tue Nov 03 14:59:50 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 15:00:50 -0800 2009
Hard to find these days as it is out of print, but a worthy find.]]> 4 0 false false Tue Dec 02 18:07:34 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 02 18:08:41 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Thu Aug 28 15:09:50 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 28 15:12:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Oct 14 21:24:49 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 21:26:46 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 18 06:41:53 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 18 07:07:47 -0700 2009 2 5 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu Jul 23 17:08:08 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 23 17:08:56 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 17:08:48 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 17:09:20 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Mar 07 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 21 10:35:36 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 24 10:15:43 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Apr 13 18:17:38 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 13 18:19:08 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Dec 29 08:37:17 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 29 08:37:39 -0800 2008