Solomon Leviathan's Nine Hundred And Thirty-First Trip Around The World

by Ursula K. Le Guin, Alica Austin (Illustrator)

LeGuin tells the tale of a boa constrictor and a giraffe, who journey around the world in search of the place where the sky meets the sea. With only their wit and a few ancient runes to guide them, the friends set off across a tumultuous sea in an abandoned boat, and meet up with a venerable old whale who gives them some good advice.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

30 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Ursula K. Le Guin published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. She lived in Portland, Oregon.

She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.

Reviews

[ambyr · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming absurdist tale with delightful illustrations. I can see why this is one of Le Guin's more forgotten works--I'm not convinced this would make a great read-aloud for children, and as a culture we don't have a lot of other roles for picture books. But I enjoyed it.

[Kest Schwartzman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I... I think i've been on this roadtrip before. I can confirm, at least, that his is authentic to the experience of spending time with philosophers.

Honestly, I'm not sure the illustrations (added long after the story was first recorded) add much to this, other than to take it from a sorta absurdist short story for adults and try and make it a kid's book. It can be either.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming and delightful tale for children of any age by one of the greatest contributors to American literature.

[Mark Oppenlander · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is about as non-essential as a Ursula K. LeGuin book can be. The text comes from Le Guin's very early writings (juvenalia really) and is similar to and overlapping with her longer story The Adventure of Cobbler's Rune. The short story here is coupled with illustrations by Alicia Austin to create a hardcover children's picture book.

The story tells of a boa constrictor and a giraffe (recurring characters from Cobbler's Rune) who decide to take a trip around the world and find the horizon. They find a boat and set out to sea, but eventually get swallowed by the titular whale, who was also known to Jonah and Pinocchio. The three characters have some fairly aimless philosophical discussions, and then literally sail off into the sunset.

I'm not quite sure who this book is for. The conversations are too simplistic to interest most adults, and too abstruse to engage most children. The open-ended story, which lacks a clear resolution, will be confusing or annoying depending on your temperament. Mostly I found this dull and uninspired. I'm giving one star for Austin's illustrations which are nice, if not particularly stylistically unique.

[Glenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

It would be nice if there were an English edition on this site. Delightful tale.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was delightful.