Escape from Monday

In times of great stress, it's useful to turn to George and Martha, and I'd just like to spotlight--here--my favorite "Martha image."

This is in "The Special Gift," and it's the moment Martha decides to visit a bookstore in honor of George's birthday. (George is *always* reading literature.)

It's very rare to see a non-hippo character in a George/Martha work, and here we're treated to the crocodile bookseller. And he is delightful; he wraps George's gift in yellow ribbon with pink polka dots, which seems to be a perfect choice. (The book will then make its way to Martha's picnic basket.)

The shop itself is clearly a used-book affair; it's not Barnes and Noble, but Tim's Used Books, in Provincetown. A light with exposed wiring hangs over the room. The books are not alphabetized; they pretty clearly reflect Marshall's own obsessions, and they're generally works of humor (books by Tomi Ungerer, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Jane Austen, Steig, Lobel). Marshall likes to have fun; he can't be burdened by fussy rules; so he turns Richard Scarry into a bizarro-world figure, the novelist "Richard Spooky."

Best of all: The crocodile has a cat-friend, Igor, who wears a beret and carries a rose. The crocodile has honored Igor with a photo on the wall, but the crocodile is a bit sloppy, and he has used some masking-tape as a display tool.

All of this makes me feel closer to James Marshall. Many of his images are special--think of George in his "flying-machine"--but the bookstore takes top prize....

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