The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances

I bought this book at Fantasy-Con this summer at Peter's booth (we're BFFs, so I can call him Peter). He recommended this one because it was just reprinted with new additions and revisions including some of his earliest published work and his forays into journalism. The fantastical stories were my still my favorite part, particularly “Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros” and “Come, Lady Death.” The former is a sweetly sad tale about aging, philosophy, and companionship featuring my absolute favorite pachyderm. The latter is one of Neil Gaiman's inspirations and I can't believe it has taken me this long to read it. As the title suggests, the theme of the collection is “odd acquaintances,” including a rhinoceros who insists it is (and may be) a unicorn, a werewolf, Death herself, and an actual unicorn. For fans of “Folk of the Air,” it also reunites Julie and Farrell, which was great fun.

The early stories are interesting reads, and I could definitely hear them being read aloud on the New Yorker podcast, but they are not exactly to my taste. The journalist essays, however, are a glimpse into a very different world and are fascinating additions. The last of these chronicles Peter's participation in the Poor People's campaign of 1968. Peter grants us a ground's eye view of the participants, their struggles, and the opposition they faced as he camped out in Resurrection City. This essay took a paragraph out of my history book and made it vivid and real. While it is unfortunate that this will be relevant for a long time, I am particularly glad to have found it now after recent tensions stemming from racism and poverty have once again begun to push at my country's foundations. While Peter says in this book that journalism wasn't the career for him (and I am happy he returned to the world of fantasy), it was clearly a worthwhile foray into the field.

There is a little something for everyone in this collection, and I highly recommend it for Beagle fans as well as anyone who loves a good story, true or true at heart.