Confounded Critic reviews
Reviews of books discussed in the January/February 2009
“Confounded Critic” columns

Anno’s Alphabet illustrated by Mitsumasa Anno
     64 pp. Crowell
     Reviewed 4/75
The artist who created Topsy-Turvies (Walker/Weatherhill) and Upside-Downers (Weatherhill) has produced another exercise in optical delusion featuring more of his technical virtuosity and visual witticisms. Each alphabetic character is cleanly painted as though fashioned of wood; but a searching look reveals the subtle deception which turns the realistic letters into three-dimensional surrealistic forms. Lines and textures are sharply communicated, but shapes are convoluted, angled, or inverted to produce an uncanny effect of motion. Facing each letter is an object, appropriately chosen but unconventionally illustrated; while the page borders are embellished with intertwining pen-and-ink drawings that conceal pictures of plants, animals, and objects, most of which are identified at the end of the book. ETHEL L. HEINS

Black and White by David Macaulay
     32 pp. Houghton
     Reviewed 9/90.
This picture book toys with the reader just as it experiments with the concept of time, simultaneity of events, and the question of one story impinging on another. The author-artist has created an addictive puzzler which can, like a Nintendo game, draw a susceptible audience into an endless exploration of the book’s many possibilities. The story — or stories, depending upon one’s perspective — comprises four sequences, each consistently placed in a particular quadrant of successive double-page spreads. Each is executed in a distinct style—ranging from the impressionist quality of “Seeing Things” through the more precisely limned “Problem Parents” and “A Waiting Game” to the dissolved figure-ground images of “Udder Chaos.” In the first, a boy observes the changing landscape from the window of a train; in “Problem Parents,” two children are amazed by the antics of their usually staid mother and father after commuting from a long day at work; “A Waiting Game” records the endless boredom of standing on a train platform while listening to accounts of unexplained delays; “Udder Chaos” proves that Holstein cows, once released from pasture, are difficult to locate, which may be useful information if you’re an escaped con — yes, the masked escapee from Why the Chicken Crossed the Road (Houghton) makes an appearance. One solution proposes that all the episodes are connected through the train motif; on the other hand, the author-artist states on the title page that “this book appears to contain a number of stories that do not necessarily occur at the same time.” Perhaps there is no one explanation but rather a series of playful allusions and clever delusions which are meant to be enjoyed by the freewheeling and freespirited as an escape from the ordinary. MARY M. BURNS

Jim Thorpe: Original All-American by Joseph Bruchac
     276 pp. Dial
     Reviewed Spring 2007
In this fictionalized biography, author Bruchac assumes the voice of Sac and Fox Indian athletic great Jim Thorpe, relating his challenges and achievements in early life. The conversational tone is accessible, and Bruchac’s extensive author’s note explains that not all the dialogue (and none of the people) is invented. Nevertheless, the conveyance of factual material through imagined first-person observation is awkward in places. Bib.

More on book reviewing | List of all reviews on this site