One Potato Review

This was published in 1973, the author has never completed another children’s book, and it’s not hard to see why. He’s exhausted. Here is the existential story of a little boy following his dreams to the big city, and a sad old homeless woman shouting about love, and a wild bull escaping from a pet store, still it’s the pictures which astonish: fine ink drawings that seem to be attempting to capture the entire epic breadth of a rising (or declining?) civilization. Flying elephants, and faucets where door handles are supposed to be, and horse-headed birds blowing saxophones with trees growing out of them - don’t get me started. There are thousands and thousands of donuts here, no one exactly like the other; indeed this book is a reminder of that homemade decade that most of us do our best to forget, and too bad. The street signs alone would take an average reader months to completely appreciate. A monumental achievement. And a pretty fun yarn.