P-List alum reviewed Walter Moers' RUMO

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

Of interest to readers of "Gravity's Rainbow" might be Moers' version of 
Hänsel and Gretel, the fairy tale by the Grimm brothers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensel_and_Krete

*> Ensel and Krete* is the second novel of the Zamonia series written 
and illustrated by German <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany> author 
Walter Moers <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Moers>. This novel has 
not been published in English 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language>. It was released in 
Germany <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany> around June 2000.


    Background

Ensel and Krete is subtitled 'A Fairy Tale from Zamonia'. It is a 
play-off of the Grimm's Fairy Tales 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimm%27s_Fairy_Tales> 'Hansel and Gretel 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansel_and_Gretel>'. The book is written 
by Optimus Yarnspinner. Its main characters are Ensel and Krete, two 
Fhernhachenkinders – half dwarves, which are lost in a large forest 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest> in which much danger hides.<

I read this when my daughter discovered the works of Moers and can 
recommend it. While I could never enjoy Tolkien or such, Moers is more 
like a Lovecraft with humor.

http://www.zamonien.de/roman_ensel-krete.php

On 29.07.2014 21:42, Charles Albert wrote:
> Read this to the kid a few years ago - never knew that it had been 
> reviewed by noted p-lister....
>
> *Canine Conan*
>
> In his native Germany, Walter Moers has an immense career, hailed for 
> his comics, fiction and animated cartoons. Here in the United States, 
> his profile is less pronounced, although readers should have been 
> jolted into awareness of his true stature by the arrival last year of 
> /The 13-1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear/ . This massive, manic fantasy 
> set on the antediluvian continent of Zamonia, exhibited seemingly 
> boundless narrative energy, invention and verbal flair, complemented 
> by Moers's own drawings.
>
> His new book, /Rumo/ (Overlook, $26.95), also fancifully illustrated, 
> likewise takes place in Zamonia, but it's radically different in tone. 
> (Kudos to translator John Brownjohn, for this graceful rendition into 
> English.) Less picaresque and much darker, it's more a bildungsroman 
> in which our titular hero descends to Zamonia's Netherworld in pursuit 
> of his abducted love, Rala.
>
> We first witness Rumo, when just a youth, killing a nest of ogres. He 
> next finds himself in the city of Wolperting, where he acquires an 
> education in combat and science. But then, in Rumo's absence (he's 
> searching for a Threefold Token of True Love), the inhabitants of Hel 
> make off with all the Wolpertings, dragging them to the Netherworld 
> for torture and gladiator games, and leaving Rumo as their sole savior.
>
> Parodic and sincere, slapstick and heart-tugging by turns, Moers's 
> novel has fresh things to say on the nature of heroism and nobility. 
> As if Tom Robbins had been inspired to rewrite Tolkien, Moers manages 
> to imbue classic sword-and-sorcery motifs with his off-kilter 
> worldview. ·
>
> /Paul Di Filippo's new novel is "Time's Black Lagoon."/
>
>
> love,
>
> cfa
>
>

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