Customer Reviews

Archy and Mehitabel

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Archy and Mehitabel" is a strange, funny little book. Drawing from the conversational poetry found in books like Edgar Lee Masters "Spoon River Anthology," Marquis uses a colloquial style which not only suits his characters, but works in a poem. Lots of laughs, some decent writing, and a tasty way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Talking animals are easy to find in literature. Good ones, like a cat and a cockroach of this caliber, are not. Marquis brings humanity by allowing his animals to stay animals. Spiders still are poisonous, rats are still threatening, and cockroaches have never been able to type the capital letters on a typewriter. Marquis pushes reality, keeping his characters grounded in truth (OK, he fudges with truth a lot, but don't let that stop you).

While filled with humorous tales, moments are sad, like in the ninth poem, "freddy the rat perishes." Dear Freddy has a run in with a spider who is up to no good. In a valiant struggle, a tough South American spider ("raised on red pepper and blood" and "nursed on tabasco sauce") Freddy is killed while saving his friends. Freddy ate some poisoned cheese the night before and let the spider bite him, knowing he had nothing to lose. After it was over, Archy and Mehitabel dropped Freddy "off the fire escape into the alley with/military honors". Despite the whole premise being ridiculous, a tear might well up.

Children will love being read the stories, and younger teens may find poetry readable (before you send them on to Keats and Byron!). Great, funny pictures, completely in the context of each poem-tale.

I fully recommend this book.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

metthinks
the vers libre of
archy literate cockroach
and mehitabel krazy kat s kouzin
are amazing and amuzing
good thing amazon.com has most
of the cocroaches volume via marquis

herriman s drawings captures
marquises tone and surrreality
and hyperreality perfectly
like a cross between a glorious
post apocalypse a goofy sat
morning cartoon and an unkept roadside
chuck wagon i believe we
all should keep
cockroach farms

just in
case just in
case

ygsgs

archy (or is it don marquis)
is a greater poet
than the critics admit
think of e.e. cummings
did he suffer so by diving
headfirst on to the typewriter keys
but he probably knew archy
from some greenwich village
coffeehouse

amazing to think these poems
were newspaper columns
when a column meant a column
straight down the inky newsprint
archy's words staining fingers
the newspaper column had a golden age
alas it is gone poor archy
and now i too have a headache

Archy and Mehitabel came into my college mailbox over and over again back in the early 40s. I was being courted by a fellow journalism classmate, who began typing sections from Marquis' book and sending them to me anonymously through the college post office. Occasionally, he alternated Archy with red roses. We worked together on the college publication, twice a week, for three years. And eventually married. Just last night our son, now 51, and I were recalling the book, which I had not seen (or even thought about for many years). The copy of the hardback which he gave me has long since vanished from my shelves, much to my dismay. That seems to happen to all my most favorite books! My son opened his laptop and found this familiar old "odd couple" at amazon.com, alive and doing well after all these years. I'm ordering a new copy tonight! Thanx amazon.com!

now granted worlds bestloved cockroach is not
a competitive title boss but you have to agree
mehitabel the cat says that i should just
forget it and return to my dusty corner but
mehitabel is a lady cat who just between us
boss is not what we might call a lady
except by default of her increasing
battered state boss ive been meaning to ask
if you would leave some cracker crumbs
by the typewriter tonight and maybe
a fish or two the ones in your bed
will do i mean for crumbs but the fish
youll have to find somewhere else
mehitabel the cat is hungry and you know
i hate to see her eat alone
i hope you are finding some readers
for my vers lbre after all these years
i know that children love to read it
because they see that i understand how
silly punctuation really is i have seen
copies of my work handed to big english
department gurus who felt
uncomfortable with it
because they hadnt seen it reviewed
in new york or anywhere else so i hope
this will help them because they need it boss
i mentioned the possibility of royalties
to mehitabel and she said that she had
all the royalty she needed because she said
she was once cleopatra and knew only
the creme de la creme but sometimes i think
she was never really cleopatra but is
afraid i will feel sorry for her i do
please find something for her to eat
soon as she has that look in her eye
again and its the
dusty corner for me right now

don marquis, a newspaper columnist, claimed that some mornings he used to find poetry and essays in his typewriter (this was way before wordprocessing) written by a former free-verse poet (sort of a 1910s variation on a beatnik) who had been reincarnated as a cockroach named archy and thus was condemned to write by diving into the keyboard one letter at a time. and no shift key, so no capitalization. so these newspaper columns looked a little like this. i used to wonder how archy work the return key at the end of the lines but I guess he got mehitabel to help. mehitabel is archy's friend and antagonist, an alley cat of great pretensions and charm. all of this sounds awfully coy, i know, like one of those hideous mystery novels where somebody's pet chihuahua solves the crime. but it isn't. it is sad and strange and very funny, especially on the subjects of writing, new york, and poverty. fans of george herriman (artist and writer of "krazy kat") especially should check this out. one of life's lower-case pleasures.

I am now in my 70's and am ordering this book for my son. I have just been remembering the wonderful books in my past and want them to continue to live. I might just order a copy for myself, too.

This book is so wonderful! Mehitabel's antics mix with Archy's poetry so well!I almost want to leave my computer on every night, just to see what would happen! My 13 year old daughter read it, and she adores it! It's a must read!

A number of years ago, my college drama department performed a musical, theater-in-the-round version of "archy and mehitabel." It delighted the audience with Archy's lower-case, cockroach philosophies and Mehitabel's wildcat antics. The book by don marquis is equally charming, revealing the human condition--no matter what the species! Especially humorous are chapters vii and xxxiv, "archie interviews a pharaoh" and "archie hears from mars."

archy and mehitabel is one of the most beautiful and life affirming novels I've ever read. It's pretty much a book of beautiful fables written in perfect simplicity. The only other books i've read that express so much so simply are the Little Prince, The Giving Tree, The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, and the works of Doctor Seuss. This book will make you a better person. You will not be disappointed.