what we have here is a failure to communicate

Illustrated by Gris Grimly

On Tuesday I visited my library with the purpose of checking out some books (instead of just picking up an ILL) for the first time in what seems like forever. Aside from the book of poetry by Ogdan Nash, and a collection of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry, I picked up a book called Click which is by 10 different authors (more about that when I finish it!), and this juicy piece of work from the combined genius of Poe and Gris Grimly.

While I must complain that the four stories contained within the book were abridged (pooh…), other than that the book was awesome. I have really never read much Poe before. The peculiar tilt of his language was kept intact as far as I could tell, and the words alone were spine chilling and delicious. Gris Grimly’s fabulous illustrations were manic and colorful, and suitable grisly at times.

I was so pleased with this book that all the time I was reading it last night while at work at the theater, I kept stopping to jam it into someone’s face in order to get their reaction. It was generally admired, and one of my co-workers deemed me to be 25% cooler as long as I had the book in my hands!

I have to go back and see if Jesup has the companion – Tales of Mystery and Madness – or else I’ll have to ILL it. 🙂