Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1529715 in Books
• Published on: 1968-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Customer Reviews

Edward Gorey meets Tolkein in mushroomland
I liked this book so much, I stole it from the library. Had Edward Gorey written Lord of the Rings on psilocybin, Musrum might have been the twisted result. (disclaimer: I have never used psilocybin nor do I promote its use to others: reading Musrum made such pursuits unnecessary). In himself, Musrum is something like an enigmatic demigod, defined at different moments as "a spirited male Gypsy mouse" and "a room to dream in" (from the Anglo Saxon). With his sidekick/clone, Palfreyman, he sets out to rescue his beloved Mushroom Tree from the evil Weed King. The book not only recounts the resulting war, but also is a trove of bizarre lists, surreal line drawings, mixed metaphors, dangled participles, riddles, paradoxes, and fables such as these: "Knowing that both tigers and bottles of arsenic are killers, (Musrum) placed a tiger and a bottle of arsenic in his private arena and sat for three days waiting for them to fight it out." Whatever coherence this book lacks is compensated for by sheer inventiveness. Highly recommended for ages 14-adult. P.S. I'd like to buy a copy so I can return mine to the library; I've had it for 20 years and I'm sure they miss it by now.