The Agony and the Eggplant

Book excerpt: The Agony and the Eggplant is the first book-length study of author, illustrator, and radio personality, Daniel Pinkwater. Pinkwater began writing and illustrating children's books in 1970 and has been a prolific author for three decades. He has written over 70 books altogether: more than fifty picture books, a dozen books for middle-grade or intermediate readers, half a dozen books for adolescents, an adult novel, and several books of nonfiction. This fifth volume in the Scarecrow Studies in Young Adult Literature series discusses nearly all of Pinkwater's books, and emphasizes his young adult fiction: Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars (1979), The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death (1982), The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror (1984), Young Adult Novel (1982), Young Adults (1985), and The Education of Robert Nifkin (1997). Pinkwater is a humorist, and many of his stories involve science fiction or fantasy themes. He is often compared with Douglas Adams and Kurt Vonnegut; his style isoften likened to Monty Python and Mad magazine. Pinkwater's fiction has often been described as "wacky" and "zany; " The Agony and the Eggplant will go beyond those cliches to place Pinkwater as a classical satirist, an American humorist, and a master of children's literature. This volume is sprinkled with quotes and observations from Pinkwater, one of the funniest men alive. A highly entertaining look at the man responsible for some of the most unique young adult fiction on the market.