The zebra storyteller

by Spencer Holst

Collects nearly all of the author's short stories, many of them published for the first time, and includes "The Typewriter Repairman," "The Adventure of the Giant Rat of Sumatra," "The Language of Cats," and "The Frog"

Genres: Short Stories

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Spencer Holst (1926–2001) was an American writer and storyteller.
Though he published several collections of stories, as well as volumes of translations, Holst was known primarily for the captivating live performances of his work that he regularly conducted, particularly in the New York City area, in a distinctive mellifluous, rhythmically cadenced voice. In his heyday he was often heard on the radio on New York's listener-sponsored radio station, WBAI.
For many years until his death, he lived at Westbeth Artists Housing in NYC. In addition to presenting readings there, he exhibited his watercolour paintings, many based on invented calligraphic motifs. The paintings were often shown with lengthy titles attached, some were small stories in themselves.
The typical Holst story might be a gentle but twisted fable, such as the tale of a frog who, having become addicted to morphine during a laboratory experiment, was rejected by the woman whose kiss transformed him back into a prince because he was, after all, only a junkie. Holst also wrote a number of paragraph-length prose pieces, which distilled a brief scene or anecdote into a glimmering, evanescent koan.

Thirteen Essays / Sixty Drawings (1960) [Self Published] by Spencer Holst and drawings by Beatte Wheeler
On Demons (chapbook) (1970)
The Language of Cats and Other Stories (1971)
Spencer Holst Stories (1976)
Something to Read to Someone/16 Drawings (with Beate Wheeler) (1980)
The Zebra Storyteller (1993)
Brilliant Silence (2000)

Reviews

[niloo · Rating 3 out of 5]

sometimes all that we need to survive is to be prepared for the unexpected

[Bria]

I read this when I was younger and liked it because it was silly and unusual, which were often the main criteria for my favorite things. It's harder to appreciate now as an old cranky woman.

[Rosa Jamali · Rating 5 out of 5]

The zebra storyteller's tale reminds me of the stories in Kelileh and Demneh( a Persian Translation of Panchatantra) which includes animal fables on the theme of hunting and survival. The Function of a storyteller is taking you to the world of imagination, fantasy and fancy in which things transform into each other. Like Borges's literature. The story looks like a folktale or a fairy tale.
It reminds me of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights and the tradition of Eastern storytelling, tales within tales. How things transform into a chain of signifiers.
The language is so complex in which you might not be able to trace the story in a proper way.
a mythological world of fancy and fantasy in which things transform into each other. the nature of language is what makes things happen.
the story looks like a puzzle, the story needs an ideal reader, any reader might have a grasp of it based on his or her own experience but this story needs a kind of aesthetic reading, how the author is connecting the sequences in a very crafty way.
This tale of deception by using another's language, but you are your true being and not what you pretend while the cat speaks Zebriac and pretends to be a lion.
The function of the storyteller is much like Shahrzadeh in One Thousand and One Arabian Night, the one who tells a story to survive, the one who writes not to die, the one who uses a language for survival.
This hunting game of kill or you will be killed.
The art of the storyteller is in speaking short and terse; paying much attention to the economy of words.
The story looks like postmodern fiction; getting close to the essence of a story.

[Mateo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zebra-talking cats, drug-addled frogs, typewriter repairmen, green flowers...

[Cooper Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t read all the stories. “Collected” editions, whether stories or poetry, usually have quite a few lesser pieces. But the classics here, which I first read roughy 50 years ago, “The Language of Cats,” “The Santa Claus Murders,” “The Music Copyist,” remain inimitable and essential.

[Gemma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating for The Zebra Storyteller’ short story. It was a bit naff.

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Short story read in Norton Introduction to Literature fifth edition]

Very short story, basically about how stories can help us prepare for the unexpected. A nice parable, and I think very true.

[Isabella Perez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really short story, very funny and pretty dark too. I'd say that the theme is how storytelling impacts people, how it can help marginalized/scared people, how fear is very powerful.