Portrait of the Walrus by a Young Artist (Harvest Book) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)While "Portrait of the Walrus by a Young Artist" certainly contains some humerous passages, a likeable heroine and enough surreality to keep the reader engaged, the book lacks the depth nessisary to sustain the themes presented in its opening chapter. Really, reading the synopsis of the book and the first few pages is enough, as what follows reverts to cliche and cartoonish symbolism. Foos uses 175 pages to essentially state that normal life is a boring escape from the arduous personal experience nessisary to truely be an "artist." It's a theme present in countless other books, many of which take the subject on with some sort of insight or depth of perception lacking in this book. Chip Kidd's "THe Cheese Monkeys" for one contains many of the same ideas as this book, but his writing is consistent, his characters believable, etc.
This is not to say that this is a bad book, exactly, merely not the powerful testimate of an artist's coming of age as some reviewers suggest. It's recommended for anyone looking for something slightly off-kilter and entertaining. For more satisfying fare, you may want to check out "the cheese monkeys" or robert irwin's "exquisite corpse," both of which cover the same material foos does, but with more pleasing results.

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