The Living House of Oz [Hardcover]

Edward Einhorn (Author), L. Frank Baum (Creator), Eric Shanower (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2005

Illegal magic in Oz! What do you do when your mother is arrested for practicing witchcraft? For thirteen-year-old Buddy the answer is easy—he's off to rescue her from imprisonment in the Emerald City of Oz! Obstacles loom on every side. The giant Bumblebeast brandishes a terrible sting. The Adepts at Magic refuse to help Buddy with their powers. And who are the shadowy creatures with animal heads pursuing Buddy for mysterious reasons? With help from friends such as the living hat stand that calls itself the Earl of Haberdashery, Buddy at last reaches his mother only to find he must challenge the Wizard of Oz and Glinda the Good, the most powerful magic-workers in Oz. As if that isn't enough, the incredible secret of Buddy's past suddenly bursts forth for all to see. Questions and threats bombard him from every side as Buddy finally faces the most important choice of his life. Overflowing with magic, adventure, and everyone's favorite Oz characters—the Scarecrow, Dorothy, Tempus the Parrot-Ox, and many more—The Living House of Oz is a thrilling and hilarious romp from start to finish.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

EDWARD EINHORN is the author of Paradox in Oz and numerous plays produced in New York City including the puppet piece Unauthorized Magic in Oz. Perhaps his most notable play was the Off-Broadway production of Fairy Tales of the Absurd, which he co-authored and directed and which The New York Times called “almost unbearably funny.” He is also the author of the upcoming books: A Very Improbable Story (Charlesbridge) and The Golem, Shylock and Methuselah: Plays by Edward Einhorn (Theater 61 Press). He has been Artistic Director of Untitled Theater Company #61 since he founded it in 1992. In that time, he has directed over twenty plays with the company. He also curated The Ionesco Festival, the first-ever festival of Eugene Ionesco's complete works. Illustrator, ERIC SHANOWER, is known among Oz readers for his Oz graphic novels and his illustrations for Edward Einhorn's Paradox in Oz and many other Oz books, a couple of which he wrote himself. The second volume of the award-winning graphic novel series Age of Bronze, his retelling of the Trojan War, was chosen by the editors of Publishers Weekly as one of the best books of 2004. His illustrations have been featured in many other books, comics, magazines, and on television in North America and Europe. He lives in San Diego with his partner David Maxine and a Boston terrier named Road.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Hungry Tiger Press (June 2005)
• ISBN-10: 192952708X
• ISBN-13: 978-1929527083
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,088,194 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Edward Einhorn is the author of the modern Oz novels "Paradox in Oz" and "The Living House of Oz" (Hungry Tiger Press); "A Very Improbable Story" (Charlesbridge), a picture book on probability; "The Golem, Methuselah, and Shylock" (Theater 61 Press), plays about Jewish legends; and "Lysistrata", a new adaptation of Aristophanes. He is also the Artistic Director of Untitled Theater Company #61, with whom he curated the Vaclav Havel Festival, the NEUROfest, and the Ionesco Festival. He is the author of a a number of critically acclaimed plays, including "Fairy Tales of the Absurd," "Strangers," Linguish", and stage adaptations adaptation of Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" and Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep." His newest book, "Fractions in Disguise," will be released in 2012.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent addition to the Oz Mythos, March 5, 2006

By 

Blake Petit "Novelist, columnist & reviewer" (Ama, Louisiana United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Living House of Oz (Hardcover)

A sequel to Einhorn's own <em>Paradox in Oz</em>, this is the story of a sorceress and her son who live in a Living House, a magical home that is, itself, alive -- and so is <em>everything</em> in it. Ozma, long ago, passed a decree that the use of magic was unlawful for anyone but herself, Glinda and the Wizard. When Buddy's mother, Mordra, is found to be practicing magic, she is arrested and brought to the Emerald City to stand trial, sending Buddy on a quest to rescue her.

Einhorn is very faithful to the world that L. Frank Baum created. He uses the original Baum characters in a very consistent fashion, and even better, he crafts new characters to add to the mythos that seem perfectly at home with the likes of the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman and the Cowardly Lion. (The Earl of Haberdashery, for example -- a living coatrack with a scarf for a face and a tendency towards severe exaggeration.)

Einhorn actually manages to do one thing even better than Baum, at least for the sensibilities of a modern reader. Baum's books were written in the early years of the 20th century, a more innocent time, and many of the original books fall short in communicating a feeling of actual danger to our heroes. Einhorn creates a genuine threat and genuine excitement in this book, but does so without compromising the sweetness of Baum's world. Baum, to this day, is categorized as "The Royal Historian of Oz." Although many, many writers have tried to fill that role in the decades since his death, Einhorn is without a doubt one of the best.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When Einhorn and Shanower unite, Oz comes to life, July 23, 2006

By 

F. Orion Pozo "Orion Pozo" (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Living House of Oz (Hardcover)

The Living House of Oz is Edward Einhorn's second collaboration with Eric Shanower on an Oz novel. The first, Paradox in Oz, was critically aclaimed, and took Ozma, the fairy ruler of Oz, on a rollercoaster ride through time into an alternative Oz where good and evil characters were reversed.

The Living House of Oz has the classic structure of an Oz novel: a young child coming of age visits Oz and, through his adventures and interactions with the good people of Oz, he matures and overcomes a crisis. In this case Buddy and his sorceress mom have fled to Oz to find safety, but have to hide because his mother uses illegal magic to protect him from danger. When she is discovered and brought to Ozma, all Oz is threatened by her enemies.

Although the structure is traditional, Einhorn brings it new life with his examination of the two themes of Nature vs. Nurture and the Role of Law in a Just Society. Einhorn's delightfully eccentric characters, like the living hat stand called the Earl of Haberdashery and the tuneful flying piccolo Flutefly, lend the work a joyful and humorous presence that is brought to life by Shanower's beautiful illustrations. His color cover and endpapers and the black and white drawings throughout the book show that he is still the best living artist of Oz themes. Einhorn has shown himself to be a master of the Oz genre by skillfully weaving in, not only themes from his previous novel, but also from two of L. Frank Baum's original series: The Emerald City of Oz and Glinda of Oz. Together Einhorn and Shanower are the best Oz Historians since the original team of Baum and Neill. They capture the essence of Oz as Baum and Neill imagined it and keep its timeless character, while presenting a sensibility that can be understood by a modern audience.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS, September 29, 2006

By 

Marcus D. Mebes "Student of Baum and Thompson" (Shreveport, LA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Living House of Oz (Hardcover)

The first thing that caught my attention when I received my copy of The Living House of Oz was, of course, Eric Shanower's top-quality artwork on the colorfully gorgeous cover of this book. The wraparound dust jacket is skillfully designed to show the main characters without cluttering up the available space. As always, Eric displays his encyclopedic knowledge of all things Oz by rendering the building in traditional Neill style, while vastly improving the art with his own attention to detail.

Edward Einhorn, continuing in the same vein as his previous book Paradox in Oz (Hungry Tiger Press, 2000; reviewed in the Spring 2000 Baum Bugle), tells us the story of a boy named Buddy and all the denizens of the sentient house he lives in with his mother. When the house settles for a while near the Ozian kingdom of Tonsoria (where everyone is dedicated to hair-fashion in some way or another), the adventure begins as Buddy strays a little too far from home, and is soon tangled in an adventure brought about by the very reason the house keeps on the move. It turns out that Buddy, his mother, and the house are on the run, pursued by some very interesting characters. Naturally, it takes magic to make all this happen, and by Ozma's law, only a certain few can practice magic in Oz. But what about all the other good (or allegedly good) magicians in Oz: the Three Adepts, Red Reera the Yookoohoo, Dr. Pipt? There comes a time when performing magic is necessary, and violating that law is a strong theme in this gloriously written and illustrated book.

Of course, one cannot review a book illustrated by Eric Shanower without raving about the art. The dust jacket, the full-color endpapers, the illustrations, and the map and bookplate from the limited edition are all stellar examples of the care and effort that Eric pours into each picture. Look at the cover a second time and you'll see Buddy's mother hiding in the house's tower. Each face on everything inside the house has its own distinct personality, as shown on the endpapers. And the strong line work in the interior black and white illustrations makes for crisp, clear and accurate depictions of what goes on in the book. There's a wonderful double-page spread on pages 146-147 that gathers together a lively bunch of Ozian celebrities; it not only gives us several characters from the famous forty (like Glinda, Jack Pumpkinhead, Scraps, Tik-Tok, Handy Mandy, Captain Salt, Ozana, Button Bright, Ojo, Sir Hokus, Kabumpo and more) but also characters from books Eric's been involved in, such as Flicker, Imogene the cow, the Salt Sorcerer, and Abatha (the Good Witch of the East).

Einhorn's story brings about a novel turn of events that reintroduces readers to familiar (and not-so-familiar) favorites such as Tollydiggle the jailer, the former Flatheads, Red Reera the Yookoohoo, the Three Adepts, and even a hostile enemy commonly long-forgotten. But looks are not everything. A wonderful theme about kindness and love in the form of a stereotypical enemy (much like Kericot the Considerate Kalidah from Phyllis Ann Karr and Melody Grandy's stories) fits perfectly in this story. In fact, without that element, I don't think Einhorn's text would have been as good as it is. The story is very Baumian, with several polite nods to established history, and very Thompsonian in the epic character-driven adventures. However, Einhorn has his own unique writing style, which turns out to be very enjoyable and actually quite intellectual without going over the heads of younger readers. You won't find any condescending "down-talk" aimed at children. This is a book that adults and kids will both appreciate.

As for the living house itself ... well, there's much to be enjoyed about it. The house is alive, the stairs are alive, the railing is alive, the silverware and pots and pans are alive, the bookshelf and books are alive, the beds ... in fact, I'd believe it if the dust were alive! But of course Einhorn focuses only on relevant characters (and characteristics) within the house. Readers will particularly enjoy meeting the Earl of Haberdashery, a coat-tree with a scarf and various other articles of clothing that make up its body. His personality is very outgoing and vibrant, if often befuddling. He provides the comic relief for the tale, yet plays a very important role in the outcome of the story.

The production is also a treat. The book is a Smythe sewn, hardcover layout in the traditional Reilly & Lee size and format. With the production team of Hungry Tiger Press putting forth every effort to make this book as aesthetically pleasing as it is literarily pleasing, you can't go wrong adding it to your library. In fact, I highly recommend getting an extra copy to donate to your local library. Futhermore, I cannot stress enough the value of the signed collector's edition of this book. The extras are well worth it--the map, the book plate, the autographs ... yet what the true collector cannot be without is the deluxe edition, which contains not only the extras that are in the signed edition, but a copy of Einhorn's play "Unauthorized Magic in Oz," extra illustrations (!!) by Shanower, and is housed in a decorative slipcase. This book is so very appealing that I thoroughly believe folks who pick it up might soon want to read more about Oz!