Outside Over There


By Maurice Sendak (HarperCollins: many editions such as Puffin or Red Fox are available)
ISBN: 978-0-06025-523-7 (HB) 978-0-09943-292-0 (PB)

If you don’t know the works of Maurice Sendak, you’re denying yourself a profound reading and viewing experience. Born in 1928, and deeply affected by the events of the Holocaust, Maurice Bernard Sendak was a uniquely skewed narrative genius who crafted beguiling, intoxicating wonderments for children of all ages for over half a century.

The son of Polish Jews living in Brooklyn, there are persistent rumours that he toiled briefly in the fresh world of comics before concentrating on children’s book illustration from the 1950s onward, ultimately writing and illustrating the astounding and controversial Where the Wild Things Are in 1963.

An instant critical success, after initial commercial resistance the book has grown into a genuine modern classic.
Between illustrating other authors’ works, he – all too infrequently – continued to produce his own books: 22 in total before his death in 2012. Among his other landmarks are the 1971 In the Night Kitchen, Seven Little Monsters and most especially, the volume under discussion here. Sendak’s concoctions are not what you’d expect of kids’ stories. Perhaps because of his being so-deeply influenced by Mickey Mouse cartoons and the movie Fantasia, they are often powerfully unsettling, even creepy, resonating with a dark psychological disquiet underpinning them.

The art is always beautiful – he was an absolute master of many styles and media – but sometimes it’s not an accessible or readily-comprehensible kind of beauty…

Nine-year old Ida has been told to look after her baby sister but she is recalcitrant and reluctant. When her guard is down, Goblins steal the tot, leaving a baby made of ice in her place. Father is still at sea and her mother in a daydream in the garden: thus, Ida must pursue the Goblins to rescue the baby herself…

Frequently cited as the source for the film Labyrinth (although I’d imagine author A.C.H. Smith takes umbrage at that), there are indeed many superficial similarities, but Sendak’s tale is subtle and truly mesmerising, with no maudlin sentiment to temper events, and with level upon level of meaning in these watercolours that just can’t be equalled in a budget-conscious, collaborative production like movie-making.

This is as close to pure, raw poetry that graphic narrative ever comes and I’m sure many college dissertations could be written on the symbolism on every page, in every well-chosen word and fragment of lush picture. The author is reputed to have systematically reduced over 100 draft scripts to the telling 360 words rendered here by calligrapher Jeanyee Wong, and the minutiae of detail in each illustration is as information-heavy as any Bosch or Bruegel canvas.

Referents have been identified for everything from Mozart’s Magic Flute to the works of the Pre-Raphaelites (both art and poetry) and to Sendak’s own sister who had to babysit him when he was an infant.

This is a small book packed and layered with meaning. Every detail of each sumptuous, magnificent painting has deep meaning for the knowing and the curious. There is sheer artistic loveliness for those yet too young to find symbolism. It’s also a powerfully moving experience and a tale so very well told. An undeniable “must-see” for every devotee of graphic narrative, but sadly only in print form, as I can’t find it offered anywhere in digital formats…
© 1981 Maurice Sendak. All rights reserved.