A review by nicktomjoe
The King and the Sea by Heinz Janisch

4.0

I think the cliche is “Darkly comic.” The shadow of Thurber hangs over this, both from the acidic little stories by Janisch and the deceptively simple illustrations by Erlbruch. Stories such as “The King and the Book” are two lines long but open up a world of speculation for adult or child reader -or maybe for a shared readership of child and adult together? Who is the writer when the king talks to his pencil in another story? And how deep can we speculate on insomnia in “The King and Sleep”? Perhaps the best parallel are the classic collections of Zen riddles or Koan: where does control or choice in life really reside in “The King and the Cat” or “The King and the Fishing Net”?