Customer Reviews

The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances

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This is an odd little collection of sundry works spanning a long period in Peter S. Beagle's career. I read on average two fiction books a year (I read mostly technical nonfiction), but was so intrigued by the title of this book, that I purchased it for some light reading. On the whole I enjoyed it quite a bit, though the final section of elderly magazine columns were a bit past their prime.

I was extremely pleased at an introductory concept Beagle explained in the preface: he had conceived of a mock-newscast featuring Pliny the Elder reporting on news about mythical beings. From this concept, "The Naga" is the only representative story available. I liked "The Naga" but must say that my favorite in the book was the book from whence the title came, "Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros," a truly amusing and charming story about friendship, featuring a rhino that thinks it's a unicorn. (Or is it?) I was also very entertained by "Julie's Unicorn." I was not enthralled with the title, but found the cavorting around art galleries and in a VW microbus named "Madame Schumann-Heink" to be much better than I had expected. On the down side, I did not really care for the darkness in "Lila the Werewolf," and also found it drag a bit, though Beagle demonstrated his exceptional grasp of character development in the characters of Lila and her mother.

The nonfiction magazine efforts were uninspiring to me, and I especially tired of the lengthy piece "The Poor People's Campaign" about a misdirected, misguided, crime-infused post-Martin Luther King civil rights action in Washington. Although Beagle was clearly sympathetic to the movement, I think he was extremely balanced in his coverage, and made no effort to hide the unattractive underbelly of the campaign. I actually thought the piece was well written (although I don't even pretend to agree with him on LBJ's motivations) but was in need of editing: it comes in at 17 pages, and would have been much more powerful at 10 or 12.

Overall, this is a charming collection of Beagle works from a variety of publications and formats, across a long period of time. I recommend the book without reservation.

I've read this three times now, and each time the collection just gets better. As an introduction to Peter S. Beagle, it's a good starting point, especially if you find the whimsicality of The Last Unicorn to your liking. Even the cover art by Mike Dashow introduces you to the unique worlds created by Peter Beagle. The title story alone is worth the price of the book, and, ah, if only we could all have a visitor like that to our library! I do recommend this - as well as all of Peter's titles - and this one is easily found through the publisher, Tachyon, as well. Kudos to them for printing such a delightful book.

At Balticon 40, Neil Gaiman and Peter S. Beagle shared a stage for the first time. Gaiman revealed that his character Death from "The Sandman" was inspired by Beagle's short story, "Come Lady Death". That noteworthy tidbit aside, this short story anthology's namesake is the jewel of the bunch. It's a poignant absurdist tale of a philosophical rhinoceros who fancies itself a unicorn, and the lonely intellectual old professor who becomes its friend.

The other tales weren't as strong or richly textured, but I felt these two tales were worth my purchase of the whole collection.

I am a huge Peter S. Beagle fan and so was a bit disappointed after reading this book. The stories are a variety of very early fiction and non fiction works and then pieces from his later years; however, I was not impressed with his non fiction pieces. Don't fret though. These stories are still told in that familar and wonderful Beagle style, and there are some stories that are truly touching ("My Daughter's Name Is Sarah" comes to mind). If you are new to the works of Peter S. Beagle and want something truly indicative of his style, I don't recommend starting with this book. It's good, but it's not great.

This is a collection of short stories that proves yet again that Peter Beagle is a master of the form. Unlike the last collection, Giant Bones, this book collects stories spanning decades of his career, including Come Lady Death (my first encounter with Beagle's work) the story of an elderly socialite so bored with her opulent parties she invites Death to her next soiree to liven the scene up a bit.
In the titular story an educated Rhino shares living space with a professor who politely (if somewhat confusedly) debates philosophy and drinks tea with his unexpected guest. Fans of the exceptional Folk Of The Air will delight in both a prequel and sequel short story featuring the same characters. In Lila The Werewolf (written before Folk Of The Air) we meet Joe Farrell for the first time, dating a girl who has an emotionally smothering mother and a tendency to become a giant wolf at the full moon. In Julie's Unicorn Farrell and Julie find themselves tending to a tiny unicorn Julie has freed from a tapestry.
There are also three stories from the 1950s, giving readers a chance to revel in glimpses of Beagle's college writing (and offering a window into his impressions of his time in Pittsburgh, PA) and a section of essays. For all the brilliance of Beagle's fiction writing his essays still surprised me with their inviting, chatty tone and the penetrating observations he makes about what he sees around him in the world.
This is an essential collection for any Beagle fans, and an excellent introduction to all the facets of Beagle's writing for the new reader.