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Adventures of a Dwergish Girl by Daniel Pinkwater
This book will be published in September, 2020--I received a copy from NetGalley--and what I mostly have to say is: I HAVE READ THIS AND YOU HAVEN'T HAHAHAHA!If you don't know Daniel Pinkwater, then nothing I can say will prepare you for his books. If you do know him, then I need say nothing. That being said, people would probably appreciate some context for the happy burbling in this review.
Indulge me for a paragraph while I go back a few decades. I encountered Pinkwater's Alan Mendohlson: The Boy from Mars and its frumpy, unpopular, misunderstood narrator Leonard Neeble a few years after its 1979 publication, when I was a frumpy, unpopular preteen girl convinced that nobody understood, and, naturally, imprinted hard on the book. Its out-of-left-field humor, thwarting of authority figures, windows into other, fantastical, worlds and the triumph and eventual self-possession of the narrator while not changing any of the traits I shared with him meant it was the right book the right time. (See #2 and #3 of S. R. Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science.) The two things I wished at the time that Alan Mendohlson had were: (1) more info about Alan Mendohlson and where he came from, and (2) a girl.
Enter Adventures of a Dwergish Girl. Molly O'Malley is a Dwerg, one of a reclusive race of people who live in the Catskill mountains. She's unsatisfied with her life and the expectations of her future, so decides to head out to The Big City and see what happens. What happens is that she encounters pizza, makes friends, discovers papaya juice, ghosts and historical re-enactors, and saves both the day and her people while being, emphatically, herself. Even when she's not sure what to do, she comes up with a plan.
Had I encountered Molly O'Malley at the same age I encountered Alan Mendohlson, I think I might have actually liked her better. It was terrific fun to watch Alan Mendohlson do amazing things, but it's better to be Molly O'Malley doing amazing things. We get to know where Molly comes from and who she is while at the same time having a view from the driver's seat. I admit that the questions that Alan Mendohlson left me with, and the particular weirdnesses of that book, made me love it and speculate long and hard on it (I was unaware of the concept of fanfic at the time, probably for the best as I would have been a terrible writer). But while AM was a sharp, hard, fizzy concoction, AoaDG is a more rounded dish with umami at the base and careful seasoning on top.
Adventures of a Dwergish Girl has a strong voice which, I admit, is Pinkwater's voice and much the same in all of his books but I never get tired of it.It's also packed full of Pinkwater's usual run of weird and quirky characters. The end teases a continuation of the story, and should that come to pass I would absolutely love it.
Highly recommended. I'm going to buy a hard copy when it's published so I can throw it at my nephew when he's old enough to appreciate it.
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Molly O'Malley is much more of a hero archetype when you're reading from her POV, albeit one who has some traditionally male-coded heroic traits like planning and leading, but also some traditionally female-coded traits, like making friends and appreciating food. From the outside, she might be a bit of a trickster but without the sharp edges and malice underpinning much of Alan Mendohlson's actions.
(And yes, he's always "Alan Mendohlson.")
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Thanks for the info! His writing sounds pretty nuanced; I will have to find a way to dip my toe in the water (aka library's still closed but we'll figure something out).
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1. 5 Novels - this collection contains Alan Mendohlson, about which you’ve read me burble, as well as The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, and Young Adult Novel.
Snarkout Boys is about two friends who sneak out to watch movies at night at the Snark Theatre, and discover a whole new world Of people and places in the city at night. I also read it over and over and somehow never managed to pick up on subtle clues about who two characters might be until an ex—who also loved Pinkwater—told me. Also the line “Oh no! He’s got me by the foot!” could reduce the ex to helpless laughter, and he continually quoted it.
Young Adult Novel was another one I imprinted on. I’d describe it as a group of high school weirdos are into Dada and one of their art projects backfires on them. But that makes it sound way more mundane than it really is.
2. 4 Fantastic Novels, for 2 of the 4 in it:
The Worms of Kukumlima—back in the 90s I actually emailed Pinkwater to tell him how much I imprinted on Alan Meondohlson and to thank him, and mentioned that a friend loved Worms in much the same way. Pinkwater admitted that he was happier with the way Worms turned out.
The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror. Not as good as The Avocado of Death, but pretty good, and it involves a werewolf and Beat poetry.
3. Lizard Music — this is a bit of a period piece now as TV stations don’t go off the air overnight. Features the Chicken Man, based on an actual Chicago man who was rather a character.
4. Then, and only then, Hoboken Fish & Chicago Whistle. This is a collection of two books of autobiographical essays—Fish Whistle and Chicago Days/Hoboken Nights—in which you learn that Pinkwater isn’t necessarilymaking stuff up, that he’s just one of those people about whom odd things congregate.
And of course, I’d encourage you to pick and choose among whatever you can get your hands on, whenever they came across your path. XD
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