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A review by hannahstohelit
The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues by Ellen Raskin
4.25
REREAD
I borrowed this book from the library a few months ago, loved it, so have now bought it- hopefully only the second of many future reads.
I actually like this (and Leon/Noel) better than The Westing Game, generally Raskin's best regarded book. In terms of its actual craftsmanship TWG might be better (the main flaws here are in pacing and style) but this book has an element of creativity and what I can only call fun that I've never really gotten from TWG. (Though, actually, if you read this after having read TWG, you'll see that a LOT of TWG characters/plot beats are recycled with changes from here- Dickory/Garson to Turtle/Sandy, both books having an idiot messenger boy and a sausage factory secretary, the scene of the plucky girl detective going up to the rich man's house to confront him with the truth... there were definitely others that I don't remember offhand.)
Part of the thing is that, to me, Raskin's best books have children who are more "normal" than the adults. When you have realistic adults, you are forced to confine your plot to reality or risk losing tonal credibility. So TWG ends up with a bunch of people with normal names living in a normal apartment building doing normal things until one weird thing happens to them... and then stuff is weird but it's not explained why weird things are happening to them so they just seem unnecessary. And then the solution is so outlandishly unrealistic that we end up just shrugging our shoulders. Here, from the start we have a normal protagonist with a crazy name, a very off kilter and unique setting, a truly nutty protagonist who never quite rings true but that's fine because why would he, and a whole catalog of oddball side characters. So anything can happen, and when it does happen it's delightful rather than slightly puzzling and tonally strange.
Is the pacing off? Definitely yes. The overall concept is very clever, but the scene ofDickory's attack came out of nowhere and ended basically immediately, and it's written in a somewhat confused way. Overall, everything happens far too quickly. In general, I feel like the whole book would have been better with another chapter at the beginning, the same middle (maybe with one more mystery in it, but not necessarily), and another two chapters developing the ending. Not that any actual additional things would HAPPEN, just that they would be related at less of a breakneck pace. It would also give the mystery portion more time to breathe- she did a great job of revealing clues along the way so you figure things out, and then you and Dickory are surprised at the exact same time, but it still feels rushed in a way that makes it not as good as it could have been. (The "Finkel, Dinkel, Hinkle" joke also gets kind of played out and probably should have been cut.) I also think that her style can be a bit jarring, but I think that I feel that way about all of her books except for Leon/Noel, where she retains more of a children's-book style that I think is kind of perfect.
But overall, it's such a fun, clever, enjoyable book. And I still do like it better than The Westing Game.
I borrowed this book from the library a few months ago, loved it, so have now bought it- hopefully only the second of many future reads.
I actually like this (and Leon/Noel) better than The Westing Game, generally Raskin's best regarded book. In terms of its actual craftsmanship TWG might be better (the main flaws here are in pacing and style) but this book has an element of creativity and what I can only call fun that I've never really gotten from TWG. (Though, actually, if you read this after having read TWG, you'll see that a LOT of TWG characters/plot beats are recycled with changes from here- Dickory/Garson to Turtle/Sandy, both books having an idiot messenger boy and a sausage factory secretary, the scene of the plucky girl detective going up to the rich man's house to confront him with the truth... there were definitely others that I don't remember offhand.)
Part of the thing is that, to me, Raskin's best books have children who are more "normal" than the adults. When you have realistic adults, you are forced to confine your plot to reality or risk losing tonal credibility. So TWG ends up with a bunch of people with normal names living in a normal apartment building doing normal things until one weird thing happens to them... and then stuff is weird but it's not explained why weird things are happening to them so they just seem unnecessary. And then the solution is so outlandishly unrealistic that we end up just shrugging our shoulders. Here, from the start we have a normal protagonist with a crazy name, a very off kilter and unique setting, a truly nutty protagonist who never quite rings true but that's fine because why would he, and a whole catalog of oddball side characters. So anything can happen, and when it does happen it's delightful rather than slightly puzzling and tonally strange.
Is the pacing off? Definitely yes. The overall concept is very clever, but the scene of
But overall, it's such a fun, clever, enjoyable book. And I still do like it better than The Westing Game.