Yok

June 11, 2012
Fabulist Davys concludes the Mollisan Town quartet that began with 2007’s Amberville with four long stories that reflect familiar fairy tales or fables as seen through the fun-house prism of the author’s imagination. Mollisan Town, a place with all the faults and divisions of a modern city, is inhabited solely by living stuffed animals that have the same strivings as humans. In “Sors,” Dragon Aguado Molina gives Fox Antonio Ortega, handsome but not very bright, three nearly impossible tasks he must perform to win the hand of his daughter, Beatrice Cockatoo. In “Pertiny,” Eric Gecko lives a life of drudgery and abuse supporting his older brothers, Leopold Leopard and Rasmus Panther, until he unexpectedly gets a chance to win the prize they covet the most. In “Corbod,” Mike Chimpanzee finds rock and roll fame and fortune fleeting, yet when he uncorks a genie, he finds it impossible to formulate three wishes. In “Mindie,” Vincent Hare seeks the meaning of life and has a race with Diego Tortoise. Davys imbues his stuffed animal world with a dark edge that eschews happily ever after endings. Agent: Susanna Einstein, Einstein Thompson.

August 1, 2012
From the mysterious Swede behind the pseudonym Davys, a lively fourth book of sophisticated Aesopian fables set in a city much like those of the modern West, except for the fact that it's populated by walking, talking stuffed animals. Like its predecessors, the final volume of the Mollisan Town quartet (it began in 2007 with Amberville, followed by Lanceheim and Tourquai) is set in a specific district, in this case the seedy, down-at-the-heels Yok. The book consists of four long stories. In "Sors," the brutish restaurateur/racketeer Dragon Aguado Molina throws barriers in the way of the dashing but dim Fox Antonio Ortega, who, hopelessly smitten, seeks the hand of the dragon's daughter, Beatrice Cockatoo. In "Pertiny," long-suffering Erik Gecko, brewery worker and abused younger brother, tries to help his siblings and tormentors, Leopold Leopard and Rasmus Panther, chase their dream of TV-newsreader stardom--and gropes toward finding a way out for himself. "Corbod" features a dissatisfied rock guitarist, Mike Chimpanzee, and a genie who enjoins him to come up with three wishes. While Mike struggles to come up with suitably nonmaterialistic items, the two ("Cloud" and "Mr. Rock Star Ape," as they refer to each other) bicker. The entertaining "Mindie," told in overlapping documents and testimonies, features Vincent Hare, a brooding self-styled philosopher who's achingly aware that time is always slipping away: "I'm in a bit of a hurry," he says again and again. Davys makes ingenious use both of traditional folktales and of his conceit, and the book is charming, but at times it does feel a bit like a grab bag. An intriguing mix of fable, philosophy and witty fun.

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May 1, 2012

The fourth book in the "Mollisan Town Quartet" (after Amberville, Lanceheim, and Torquai), this entry is made up of four stories set in the area named Yok. Each story offers a singular reading experience, delving into a different aspect of the conundrum called life. Fox Antonio Ortega is ruined by love, Erik Gecko runs away from success, rock star Mike Chimpanzee is imprisoned by freedom, and Vincent Hare is crushed by ambition. The writing is exquisite. These characters are all literal stuffed animals, though they are otherwise human in every other way, having all the normal human functions. This absurdist reverse anthropomorphism creates a weird sense of real unreality that is quite compelling. These stuffed animals are people stuck in fabric bodies. They are just like us but not. They can die at any time, either by accident or when the enigmatic "Chauffeurs" come to take them away. VERDICT An intense tragicomic examination of the problems of living: Watership Down meets Rabbit, Run. Highly recommended.--Henry Bankhead, Los Gatos P.L., CA

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