The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy - Hardcover

Burton, Tim

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688156819 ISBN 13: 9780688156817

Publisher: William Morrow, 1997

Synopsis

Filmmaker Tim Burton has become known for his unique visual brilliance - witty and macabre at once. Now, he gives birth to a cast of gruesomely sympathetic children - misunderstood outcasts who struggle to find love and belonging in their cruel, cruel worlds.

About this title

Review:

This unassuming hardcover in black buckram with a dark lavender title plate is the door into a world of twisted pleasures. Filmmaker Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas) tells 23 winsomely macabre stories about boys and girls who don't fit in. Their bodies are misshapen, their habits are odd and their parents are appalled by them. But they do try hard to be human, like poor unwanted Mummy Boy, who's "a bundle of gauze": he goes for a walk in the park with his mummy dog. Some kids who are having "a birthday party for a Mexican girl" mistakenly take Mummy Boy for a piñata: "They took a baseball bat and whacked open his head. Mummy Boy fell to the ground; he finally was dead. Inside of his head were no candy or prizes, just a few stray beetles of various sizes." For all its simple humour, The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories is a peculiarly disturbing book about the violence that children suffer. It is illustrated in pen and ink, watercolours, and crayon. The themes and imagery are at a young-adult to adult level.

Review:

'Burton's creepy stories conjure up the fantastical, even the slightly demented.' -- Entertainment Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0688156819
• ISBN 13: 9780688156817
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 128