Customer Reviews

The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The "Very Presistent Gappers of Frip" is a wonderful fable that adults will love and that kids will enjoy as well, but on a different level. (Much as "the simpsons" has many layers.) The illustrations are also great. Lane Smith's artwork evokes the surreal quality of Saudners prose perfectly. The tale is typical of Saunders' short stories in his earlier books, although without any perversity or "unsuitable" language. The story is bizarre and endearing; the characters live in a world so different than our own, yet they seem so familiar anyway. This book is expensive considering its brevity, but is worth it just for the illustrations, let alone a funny story by George Saunders. In short: Buy it! Buy it now! Buy extra copies to give as gifts!

Saunders' brilliant, hilarious adult allegory is masked as a children's tale but is really more of a profound critique of American social Darwinism and the false idea currently held by many rich and privileged that they are rich and privileged due to their own superiority, hard work, or God's election, and not to pure luck. The book is also a thoughtful, funny response to libertarian myths of radical individuality that currently infect American politics like those Gappers of Frip. Older children might enjoy the book as well. I could imagine teaching this book, with wonderful illustrations by Lane Smith, to intelligent ten year olds, but might also integrate the book into a high school English course.

This very evening I discovered the joy of reading George Saunders...
"There were approximately fifteen hundred gappers living in the sea near Frip. Each Frip family had about ten goats. Therefore, there would normally be about five hundred gappers per yard, or fifty gappers per goat."
What is a gapper?
Well, it is this baseball-like, Velcro-type crustacean with multitudinous eyes, that crawls out of the ocean at night along with (give or take) 1,499 of its buddies, all intent upon attaching themselves to local goats in a burr-like fashion. Side effects? Serious immediate goat-lassitude followed by actual withering, and depletion of milk supply!
Exactly! Of course!
It's fabulous.
Oh man... it's been a long while since I got so caught up into one of these child/adult books, the last time being Salman Rushdie's excellent "Haroun And The Sea Of Stories."
This one is every bit as good, or better. And every bit as crazy.
Let me put it this way... I stumbled across this book in the store, sat down with it... read the whole thing, laughed... laughed some more... thought of many people I want to give this book to... and ended up purchasing five copies. One will be for my own re-reading.
It is hilarious, and meaningful all at once... as the slipcover says, it's an "adult story for children, a children's story for adults."
The illustrations are superb, and the quality of the book is impeccable... a work of art.

It is a flawless imaginative work, that... while it makes you laugh at every second sentence, makes you realize that resourcefulness in the midst of undeserved adversity can really save the day! That selfishness is ugly... that neighbors ought to be... neighbors.
This little girl named Capable... she is a terrific role model for children.... and adults!
A brilliant work, and recommended without reservation. When you read this story to children the only question will be, who will love it more, you or them? Neither one loving it is simply an impossibility!

My sister gave me this book recently as a birthday present. Immediately I was struck by the bold, yet somewhat disturbing illustrations (the voodoo doll) that accompanied Saunders slight moral tale.

"The Very Persistent Gapper of Frip" tells the tale of the extremely small town of Frip, three families to be exact, who make their living raising goats and protecting their beloved economy from the gappers - bright orange shrieking creatures who love goats. If left to their own devices, the gappers will completely cover a goat and soon he will stop giving milk, therefore putting a halt to any sort of income for the three families. The children of the three families are responsible for brushing the numerous gappers from their goats at any given time of the day. The less-than-bright gappers settle their sights on the main character, Capable's goats. She has lost her mother and her father refuses to change (or to eat anything that isn't white) and so she is left alone to handle all the gappers of Frip since her neighbors believe her to be cursed. Seemingly alone, Capable must teach herself, her father, and her neighbors the true meaning of community (as well as how to overcome the persistent gappers).

"The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip," is a delightful and quick read even if it has a somewhat apparent purpose and moral. The illustrations by Lane Smith truly elevate this slight tale to an instant classic.

This book is glorious. I find myself pondering passages at the oddest of times. I've read it aloud to my high school students and to friends over dinner. Saunders's prose is of the highest quality, witty, and exceedingly intelligent. Smith's illustrations are evocative and magical. This world of Frip, with its goats and its gappers and its three leaning shacks by the sea is a wonderful place to explore.

The thinness of the book is deceptive. I have read it literally dozens of times at this point and always delight in some turn of phrase that I didn't fully appreciate before. The images are rich and multi-layered and just as much fun over which to pour.

And then there is the lesson of the story. Never preachy, never saccharine. Though I suppose there are several messages from which you can take your pick. Ask for help when you need it. Don't believe the party line. Be kind to people, even when they don't really enjoy it. And love something that will love you back. No matter what the age of the reader, everyone needs to be reminded of those things sometimes.

I would recommend this book to children and adults who are not boxed in by what they think adults whould read. Too many grown ups are scared of books with pictures. Read this aloud to friends and family and to yourself.

As a fan of both Saunders and Smith, I felt compelled to pick this one up. The book itself is well-made -- beautifully bound with heavy, tactile paper.

I was expecting something a little more adventurous from Saunders, but still he knows how to tell a fun story in the tradition of Seuss and Dahl. Gappers from the sea are molesting the goats of Frip with their joyous shrieking, while young Capable must support both herself and her widowed father, who insists on eating white food. You get the idea.

Or maybe you don't.

The real stand out here is Smith's illustration. I'm hoping to buy or recreate a couple of these pieces and hang them on the wall.

A good book for the kids' shelf too. This one will make for about an hour of bed-time reading and picture-viewing.

What a lovely, whimsical book. I picked this up on a whim at a bookstore and (at eighteen years old) laughed out loud all the way through it. Real, hysterical humor is mixed with a good moral and some unforgettable characters that are remarkably well-formed for a ninety-six page "kid's book." Family ties, pathos and some dead-on observations of human nature abound in this creative little tome which is something like a crazy "Little Red Hen" story. The dialogue is absolute perfection. It couldn't be funnier. Kids and adults alike will love this timeless tale.

If you expected this book to be about guitar virtuoso Robert Fripp, you may be severely disappointed. Not once is Fripp mentioned (I checked twice), nor are there any references to prog rock.

Instead, Saunders and Smith have created a slim, straightforward fable that packs a solid humanist punch. This was clearly written with children in mind, but adults will savor the absurdism inherent in the story and illustrations. In certain instances, Saunders' language is probably too clever for young children, but it won't detract from their experience and will only add to an adult's enjoyment. The story is direct, surreal and touching, much like the adult-oriented stories found in Saunders' two previous collections (Pastoralia and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline).

The book design itself is also quite appealing, with a gauzy dust jacket, bright colors and smashing typography. I've probably gone too far in praising the typography, and I didn't really mean it, but what's done is done.

So happy I discovered this gem. My life is all too much like life in Frip, removing gappers from goats in a never ending cycle. Actually, I'm a librarian, but the stream of questions is equally unending and the books check out and come back much like gappers. As the story progresses the depth of the psychological penetration becomes keener. For whenever something goes wrong for me, I must admit to being surrounded by neighbors who blame me for my troubles and see their own fortune as a result of being better folks than I. I'm making a long list of people who need a copy. Starting with George Bush.

I had read all of Mr. Saunder's work, but had avoided the Very Persistent Gappers of Frip until I saw it on sale at Amazon. I bought it and read it to my six year-old twins who laughed out loud and who now call the burrs in the back yard "gappers" and brush them off their socks with an old brush. It is just a matter of time before they get the idea of walking them down to the beach and dumping them into the sea.

This book is funny and insightful and great for kids and grown-ups alike. Idea: this would make an excellent Teacher Appreciation Day gift for your child's teachers.