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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Placing the push before the cart, August 5, 2004
This review is from: The Pushcart War (Paperback)
When I decided to read all the great children's books written in the English language (this project isn't going as quickly as I had hoped it would) I made a list. While writing it, something in the back of my mind reminded me that when I was a kid a book often mentioned was the 1964 title, "The Pushcart War". I had never read it when I was younger, but I had clear memories of people discussing it with vim and vigor. Seeking it out, I decided to read it for my very self. What I discovered was that this book has been unmercifully forgotten. Here we have one of the greatest parables of the 20th century and how many kids today have read it? How many kids will read it in the next 30 years? Ladies and gentlemen, if you know a child, any child, that has the ability to read you must make it your American duty to seek out a copy of this book, purchase it, and thrust it into the hands of your young acquaintance. This is one of the best books I have ever read.
Now I'm glad I read a 1964 edition of this book because it gets a little confusing at the beginning. The book begins with a Foreword by Professor Lyman Cumberly of New York University (author of "The Large Object Theory of History"). This Forward, dated 1986, reflects on the events of the New York Pushcart War and offers some insight. Here I am, 26 years of age, and I honestly thought that this was a real professor writing a real preface. Then I saw the copyright date and I figured it out. This was a fictional professor writing some 20 years in the "future" when the town was able to sort out the events as they occurred. Still, the book is written in a somewhat original and scholarly fashion. There are photographs and scripts and letters to editors and all sorts of cool little touches that make it seem like a real historical document. Which of course makes the story itself that much more amusing.
The events of the Pushcart War began when trucking companies in New York starting making their trucks bigger and bigger. This, in turn, made traffic far more congested and for the trucking companies there was a definite danger that people would insist that the trucks no longer stay so large. In a sense of misguided self-preservation, the truckers decide to blame the simple pushcart vendors on the streets for the traffic. By carefully spreading misinformation and attacking the pushcarts with a series of "accidents" the pushcart vendors find themselves in trouble. Their only recourse is to fight back, and they do so with a series of clever ideas. As the war escalates, so too do the pushcart vendors' strategies. In the end, not a single person has been killed and for once the little guy has beaten the bigger one.
In the Foreword, this sentence sums up the book: "...big wars are caused by the same sort of problems that led to the Pushcart War". True enough, some wars ARE caused by the problems found in this book. There are some wonderful touches in this story that will give adult readers an extra laugh. For example, the mayor of New York is in the pay of the big truckers and gives a speech about them while running for reelection. In it, he explains that big trucks mean bigger business, and hence - progress. If you want to ship a lot of peanut butter, you need a big truck. The candidate then goes on to say, "My opponent, Archie Love, is against trucks. He is, therefore, against progress. Maybe he is even against peanut butter". We've all heard fifty different versions of this speech in our time. Chalk this silly little sentence up to Jean Merrill's sly writing skills.
I love the characters in this story and the silly battles that are pitched. Because it was written in 1964 there is the odd reference once to "lady drivers", but it comes off as quaint rather than offensive. This is also definitely a New York creation. The original illustrations by Ronni Solbert look like nothing so much as small New Yorker cartoons turned into illustrations. Honestly, if you want a way of explaining to kids how some wars are begun (recent wars, unfortunately, don't quite fit this mold, but that's okay) this is a great way to do it. I was especially taken with the pushcart vendors' non-violent response, culminating in a honest-to-goodness peace march near the end.
Why don't more people know about this book? Why is it slowly but surely being forgotten by the masses? People, if I had my way I'd assign this book to every man, woman, and child living in the United States today. I'd shout its wonders from the rooftops and glorify it in song. I would, in short, force the world to admit that it's a classic tale. Until I'm able to do so, however, I urge you to read it yourself. You'll be delighted by its wit and wisdom as well as author Jean Merrill's great storytelling skills. Never forget it again.
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Just For Kids!, July 15, 1999
This review is from: The Pushcart War (Paperback)
I read THE PUSHCART WAR as part of a reading program when I was in fifth grade, and of all the books I read that year, this is the one of only two that stuck with me. In the late eighties I found the book back in print, and I snatched the copy off the shelf to read to my then-seven year-old son. When I did, I made a wonderful discovery... that THE PUSHCART WAR was even more fun to read as an adult... so much so that this book would have an impact on my own writing. THE PUSHCART WAR is not just for kids. I am in my forties now, and I still find myself going back to re-read this one. I have read it to both of my children and they love it, too. And I hope they're eavesdropping when I read it to their children -- and discover the whole subtle world of adult satire that this delightful book conceals.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More here than on the surface, June 9, 2005
This review is from: The Pushcart War (Paperback)
I read this book because I'm a big fan of Merrill's book THE TOOTHPASTE MILLIONAIRE (ISBN 0395960630) and I wanted to see some of the others she'd written.
The book is set in crowded 1960s New York City where a turf war of sorts is evolving between taxis, cars, trucks, and street vendors. A fight for a parking space between one of the huge truck's drivers (Merrill names him "Mack" in a clever injoke) and "Morris the Florist", a pushcart peddler, ends in an accident that launches a witty all-out battle for street supremacy. The writing is fast paced, clever, and doesn't "talk down" to its intended audience of children. (I'd think grades 4 through 7 are the most likely targeted group.)
*** Some minor spoilers ahead ***
The tale on the surface is clever enough, but this book is multi-layered. Predominantly, it's an allegory for war in general, though I'd not single out any specific skirmish.
I see allusions to the Revolutionary War's Boston Tea Party and Stamp Act. When children who've joined the cause shoot tacks at trucks to flatten their tires, the city's mayor, in collusion with the trucking firms, levies a sizable tax on tacks in the hopes kids won't be able to afford them.
As far as World War 2 Naziism, the truckers' evil Master Plan would first get rid of pushcarts, then motorcycles, working their way up to taxis and cars so that they can move about on the roads more freely reasoning that the bigger vehicles move more commerce and should get more space. Later on we learn that smaller TRUCKS are also targeted by the "Big Three" behind the plan, an obvious reference to the famous quote about "When they came for the Poles, I didn't speak out because I was not Polish. Then when they came for me, there was no one to speak out for me.."
In a more generic reference to propaganda campaigns, the truckers use a giveaway newspaper to badmouth the carts.
Besides the war allegory, though, there are larger issues touched upon: civil disobedience (the Peace March), the nature of bullying (many instances), the power of the written word (a "Letters to the Editor" campaign), the idea of unionizing (the fund Maxie establishes to help cart owners repair carts hurt in the "battles" for free), corporations vs. "Mom and Pop" stores, doubletalk and graft in politics (see the "Peanut Butter Speech"), the ability of brains to win over brawn and weapons (Maxie's card game with "the Three" and the police commissioner) and the difficulty in finding the limits between activism and aggression (Harry the Hot Dog shoots a woman who criticizes his sauerkraut and is chided by one of the other vendors for it). I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting. Merrill brings up the ideas through the humour of the story but avoids becoming preachy about them, allowing the discerning reader to "get the point" on his or her own.
BOTTOM LINE:
Highly entertaining for the younger ones just as a "fun story". The older kids should be able to see some of the underlying messages and it would probably be a very good book for class reading...lots of opportunity for quality discussion of the issues raised. Adults will find it a nice afternoon read and probably see themselves (and others they know) in the faces of the warriors for both sides. It will be another of my favourites.
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