Nothing Is Normal Or Plain

In The Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

It never hurts to have a bit of the bizarre in your life. Even if you're only two years old. Thankfully there are people such as Maurice Sendak who writes books that quietly warp our minds, shielding us from the danger of growing up dullards.

Sadly, I did not discover In the Night Kitchen as a child. It was only a few days ago at our library's bag sale that I picked up a coffee-stained worn copy of Sendak's creation. Then tonight I discovered it anew in pristine condition at the local Barnes and Noble. I think I prefer the musty-smelling, stained one, for while the words and pictures are the same, the glossy, new pages can't quite capture the mystical aspects of this strange tale.

So why am I so charmed by this book? In what ways does it warrant the labeling "bizarre"? Let me attempt to explain.

The story begins on a late night long after everyone else has gone to bed. Mickey awakens to a clamouring below him. Rather than act frightened or intimidated,he hollers at whoever is making the racket to pipe down. He then begins falling

and falling

and falling.

Ever had that falling feeling in a dream? This is just one way that Sendak starts to transport you into this dream world of his. Mickey falls out of his clothes, past the room where his parents sleep and plops into the world of the night kitchen. The dark hues of the nighttime illustrations give way to large commercial-type pictures that suggest Andy Warhol has crept into the book and left his mark before sneaking back away.

The chefs of the night kitchen, three giantish men who look as though they are recent escapees from Mother Goose's Three Men in a Tub rhyme, happily stir Mickey into the cake batter, mistaking him for a cup of milk. He bursts out of the cake batter after being stuck in the oven.

The tale seems scripted from a restless night's dream, expertly weaving the absurd with the commonplace, and taking sudden, swift turns into new directions suggested by a single word or phrase. Although the book is consistently subtle in all but its imagination, it does make me think Sendak did a lot of thinking about dreams and their psychology before putting this book together.

I'll confess to a little bit of discomfort, though you'll probably think me squeamish or prudish. There is nudity in this children's book. Mickey falls out of his clothes and there are plenty of front-on shots of the nude Mickey. Yet, I think there is supposed to be an innocence here, one not colored by a fear of lurking child pornographers at every corner. The illustrations have an artistic integrity that I'd be hard-pressed to argue with. I think the pictures would lose their impact and their dreamlike inducements if the nudity were obscured. It would also insinuate that there was something shameful about this child in this world of dreams.

Overall, Into the Night Kitchen is a great book for children ages two to ten and for any adult. It teaches a subtle form of logic, one that is developed through odd relationships that make sense through the surface absurdity.

--B. Redman