Odd Birds & Fat Cats: (An Urban Bestiary)
in Tel Aviv . . . Spiders in Cognac. City creatures spark the imagination and
intellect in words and art by this father-daughter team. Odd Birds & Fat Cats (An Urban Bestiary) is an
illustrated collection of brief observations on city creatures. Inspired
by the tradition of the medieval bestiary, bestiarum vocabulum, a
12th-century bestselling genre that chronicled animals and beings both
real and fantastical, the book features pithy impressions of birds and animals
that delight, confound, and edify, written by Peter Wortsman, coupled
with detailed naturalist artwork by his daughter, Aurélie
Bernard Wortsman.
Featured creatures include:
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Pigeons: "When, finally, it takes flight . . . this
asphalt-colored bird is like a piece of the pavement which by some fluke of
gravity broke loose and is foolishly falling upward by mistake."
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Seagulls: "Fallen splinters of eternity, they hang
overhead with the equanimity and mild disdain of angels in a medieval
altarpiece, and unlike pigeons, refuse any direct contact with man."
-
Ants: "Micro-managers in three-piece bodies,
ants parody human antics to a tee. Or is it the other way around?"
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Dust mites: "Every time you scratch yourself or comb
your hair, you are feeding the tiny intruders with the detritus of self."
edition, this one-of-a-kind volume will please the discerning animal lover,
traveler, art lover, iconoclast, and literati on your gift list--and, of course,
also you!
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"Each of these miniature worlds--whether we are given to contemplate a spider drunk on cognac or a seagull "patiently and dispassionately" devouring a pigeon run over on a highway--has its own climate and dimensions. By turns lyrical, gruesome, comically exhilarating or abruptly somber, grotesque or fantastic, they uncover startling likenesses in the heart of the apparently alien (ants are "micromanagers in three-piece bodies"), and strange landscapes in the corners of the ordinary. From the vestigial hind toe of the pigeon to the crannies of the aging human face, any small glance or turn of phrase can turn into an unsettling adventure. Following in the ancient footsteps of Pliny the Elder and Saint Isidore of Seville, the Wortsmans create their own singular bestiary, in which the tiniest spaces are cavernous and full of hidden histories." --Geoffrey O'Brien, author of Arabian Nights of 1934
"What a wonderful collaboration, and between father and daughter, sure to be a bestseller." --Kate Taverna
"Peter Wortsman's compressed fictions strike swift and hard, like a good Zen whack that awakens enlightenment." --Tom Christensen"Wortsman . . . connect[s] the power of the dream narrative to conscious language to create unique works
that walk a curious line between fiction and poetry." --Russell Edson "A master of the telling detail, Wortsman is one of those
rare writers upon whom nothing, as Henry James put it, is ever lost." --Marjorie
Perloff
"Marvelous writing, wonderful craft, and the breath of
imagination . . . [Wortsman] succeeds so well in his craft and art that it reads
'artless' and 'spontaneous, ' which to me is the highest of compliments." --Hubert
Selby, Jr.
