Reviews for The Taking Tree: A Selfish Parody

The average rating for The Taking Tree: A Selfish Parody based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-10-26 00:00:00 Joni Galman so i was waiting until the gods of media mail delivered david's (yes, belated) birthday copy of this book to him before i wrote my own review. i know my reviews are a secret joy to him, and i didn't want his view of the book to be tainted by my keen critical eye. i also figured it was his duty to review it first. you see, david's review of the giving tree is quite legendary, don't you know? like, golden age legendary. much like the aurora borealis, it can only be seen on certain nights, when the moon is full and the wolves are snug in their dens, and then - in a twinkling - it is gone again, but all who have been fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of it are never the same afterward."did you see that?" they ask each other, never sure if it was imagined.... in some cultures, reading david's review of the giving tree is a rite of passage, when little boys become men. but those little boys are shit out of luck, because right now, that review is in the wane of its cycle. and now - irony of all ironies - david's review of this book has also gone into hibernation. david kowalski, you are running the very real risk of becoming entirely apocryphal. and if i may be one-more-time-name-dropping before we get to the actual review, may i just take this moment to say that ariel is not a mermaid but an angel sent here from heaven to give me books, even when i don't come right out and beg for them. she is a delight. so, the giving tree. i gave that book 5 stars not because i think it is an awesome story, but because it is so spectacularly manipulative and it teaches little kids how to be sociopaths, but masks it underneath some scratchy drawings, and that it has been in print as long as it has without people being up in arms about this leaves me awestruck and twitterpated. i don't care how you are reading it (popular interpretations are a mother's selfless love for her child - giving up all she is made of for him to succeed, or as a spiritual parable about the turn-the-other-cheek philosophy that gives and gives despite being taken advantage of, or as a terrifying tale of inequality and battered woman/tree syndrome in an emotionally unequal relationship), it is a shitty, shitty situation for the tree. come on, tree - haven't you been following my reviews?? this is like a bizarro shel silverstein book, where the tree has a backbone, and even though that stupid kid manages to get a lot of shit over on the tree, at the end, there is comeuppance. i love a good revenge story. i love the illustrations, i love the playfulness, i love the little back-cover joke; this book is a real freaking joy to me. this is a perfect gift for anyone who can be amused.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-12-14 00:00:00 Thabang Mafohla At present my reading has slowed down ever so slightly as i foolishly began to watch the box set of 'The Wire' and am fast becoming addicted. However i am trying to restrain myself and just watch a couple of episodes at a time. I find I am using the remote a good deal as I pause and rewind to try to fathom what on Gods own earth half of the characters are saying. If this tree had a role in the series she would, as I note americans like to say, kick ass; whether on the side of the cops or the drug dealers I would not like to say or at least certainly not without a good deal of promised and assured protection. If i was seeking to be literary and pretentious I would say ' This tree probably led the charge on Dunsinane', if I was being me I would say 'This tree really made me laugh and expunged from my mind for a brief moment of joy the horror that is 'The Giving Tree'. This seems like payback for every ecological disaster, every cloud of Napalm, every man-made desert encroach, each and every act of deforestation....well that might be putting a little too much responsibility upon this jokey spoof but after the gross doormat status of the giving tree where she gave her all, literally, without any thought for herself and the brute that was the boy takes and takes without giving or thankng or acknowledging this is not so much a breath of fresh air but a being forced to stand in a wind tunnel when they turn the generators on full and the little tyke is swept clean off his self centred little feet. Suffice it to say, even though the Tree stil gets abused and violated by the ever ageing brat, the Tree gets the last word and that word is sort of Timber-ouch-squish. I loved it. A really funny and clever parody. PS. I love the note at the end of the book which points out from whence comes the paper on which the book is printed. It reminded me of the cards which spoof the ' This card is made from wood drawn from sustainable forests' where they say ' No tree was destroyed to make this card but two small bushes were brutally beaten to death to make the envelope'