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Tomi Ungerer
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From: linnea hendrickson <lhendr>
Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 10:05:06 -0600
Tuesday, August 03, 1999, 11:10 PM +0000 MalibuInc at aol.com wrote:
Preston,
This is interesting because my copy of "No Kiss for Mother" (Delacorte, 1991) does not have this image. There is a picture of Piper and his mother about to leave the school in a taxi, with a cat in military-style overcoat and hat standing nearby holding an open newspaper. He does have an armband, but it is emblazoned with a question mark (?)! -- not a swastika. I wonder if some revising has gone on here? I also don't see any resemblance to Churchill.
I do think there are no clear-cut lines between "good guys" and "bad guys" in Ungerer's work. He's always redeeming the bad (Zeralda's Ogre), and certainly Piper and his mother in "No Kiss for Mother" are complex characters, neither wholly good nor wholly bad. Piper is the quintessential "bad" boy, yet he has a conscience. The father is perceptive in some ways, detecting some of Piper's tricks ("I fooled everyone by rubbing my toothbrush on the edge of the sink./ Fooled everyone but the dentist. You can still hear the echo in my cavities.") Yet, he doesn't dream that his son has broken the window of
"My car, my only car!" and blames "lousy punks" for the damage. He is also oblivious to the woman he's splashing as he drives off in his car after dropping Piper off at school. Piper's parents strike me as typical middle class parents whose own darling children can do no wrong, and who are primarily concerned with their own comfort and have little thought for any one else.
Ungerer has said that "No Kiss for Mother" is one of his most autobiographical books. Apparently it met with mixed reviews when it was published in the U.S. In "Tomi" he writes much about his mother. He was an accidental late child, and his mother, a stunningly beautiful woman, absolutely doted on him. My son and I adored this book and laughed together over Piper's naughy doings, and the gruesome images of mice being processed in the meat grinder.
Linnea Hendrickson Lhendr at unm.edu
Received on Wed 04 Aug 1999 11:05:06 AM CDT
Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 10:05:06 -0600
Tuesday, August 03, 1999, 11:10 PM +0000 MalibuInc at aol.com wrote:
Preston,
This is interesting because my copy of "No Kiss for Mother" (Delacorte, 1991) does not have this image. There is a picture of Piper and his mother about to leave the school in a taxi, with a cat in military-style overcoat and hat standing nearby holding an open newspaper. He does have an armband, but it is emblazoned with a question mark (?)! -- not a swastika. I wonder if some revising has gone on here? I also don't see any resemblance to Churchill.
I do think there are no clear-cut lines between "good guys" and "bad guys" in Ungerer's work. He's always redeeming the bad (Zeralda's Ogre), and certainly Piper and his mother in "No Kiss for Mother" are complex characters, neither wholly good nor wholly bad. Piper is the quintessential "bad" boy, yet he has a conscience. The father is perceptive in some ways, detecting some of Piper's tricks ("I fooled everyone by rubbing my toothbrush on the edge of the sink./ Fooled everyone but the dentist. You can still hear the echo in my cavities.") Yet, he doesn't dream that his son has broken the window of
"My car, my only car!" and blames "lousy punks" for the damage. He is also oblivious to the woman he's splashing as he drives off in his car after dropping Piper off at school. Piper's parents strike me as typical middle class parents whose own darling children can do no wrong, and who are primarily concerned with their own comfort and have little thought for any one else.
Ungerer has said that "No Kiss for Mother" is one of his most autobiographical books. Apparently it met with mixed reviews when it was published in the U.S. In "Tomi" he writes much about his mother. He was an accidental late child, and his mother, a stunningly beautiful woman, absolutely doted on him. My son and I adored this book and laughed together over Piper's naughy doings, and the gruesome images of mice being processed in the meat grinder.
Linnea Hendrickson Lhendr at unm.edu
Received on Wed 04 Aug 1999 11:05:06 AM CDT
