The Great Petrowski: An Illustrated Fable [Hardcover]

This odd little parable, announced as an ecological fable, was written (and charmingly illustrated) by the late Berriault (d. 1997), in the wake of the long-delayed acclaim that greeted her award-winning story collection, Women in Their Beds (1996). It's an arch morality tale, about a disenfranchised parrot who alights accidentally in a Manhattan opera house, stays and learns to mimic brilliantly the singers who enchant him, is (inexplicably) dubbed Petrowski and made an international star--then, during a South American tour, is lured back to the tropical rainforest he now recognizes as his home, and becomes an enlightened ecologist. The story climaxes (if that's the word) during a pilgrimage to the Himalayas, when a generic wise man confirms Petrowski's tendency toward selfless sacrifice, and ends in a (conveniently planted) abandoned opera house right there in the Brazilian jungle, where Petrowski and his Parrot Troupe (of admiring avian colleagues) will thereafter make beautiful music, not for fame or fortune, but in celebration and defense of the unpolluted air where all may breathe (and singers may refine their artistry). If this isn't a coy and rather precious allegory of Berriault's own commitment to art and eventual triumph over obscurity (the summary observation, An underestimated bird, he had overcome the odds against him and attained the pinnacle, pretty clearly alludes to a neglected writer's late-life success), then it's a peculiarly underimagined children's book. It has its moments; as always, Berriault's genius shows itself in seemingly offhand yet precise and arresting details (a smitten Countess invites Petrowski to visit her mansion surrounded by vast orchards of delectable fruits). But it's awfully fey and sentimental, and one doubts the author considered it ready for publication in its present state.Berriault's biographer may unearth much of interest here, but the general reader will likely find Petrowski is thin stuff performed in a decidedly minor key. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

"[An] elegant, funny, serious, morality tale that both adults and children will enjoy." -- Jill Wolfson, San Jose Mercury News

"[As] richly nuanced and as full of longing as an aria by Puccini . . . [Gina Berriault's] crowning achievement." -- Tom D'Evelyn, Providence Journal

"I may not ever know the place where I was born until I find myself there again."

It was only in the decade preceding her death last summer that Gina Berriault won the readership and critical acclaim that had been rightfully hers from the start. In 1997, after forty years of writing, she won four major fiction prizes for Women in Their Beds, Counterpoint's collection of her masterful short stories. At the last, she suffered fame and popularity and the press of ardent fans.

This last year, she wrote and illustrated The Great Petrowski, an ecological fable about a lonely parrot, lost in a nameless rainy city, homesick for a place he can't quite remember. Petrowski comes in from obscurity to win international renown because of the splendor of his singing voice. As a magnificent opera star he finds true love and uses his gift of fame to save not only his native rainforest but all creatures of the earth. The charming illustrations, rendered with the same simplicity and wit as the text, will remind some of Semp, of Edward Gorey, or of Bemelmans' bar at the Hotel Carlyle.

The Great Petrowski is a magical love story as well as a moral fable that shows how the gift of talent and dedication to one's art can aid a troubled world.

Gina Berriault was born in Los Angeles and lived in the Bay Area. She was the author of four novels, including The Son, Afterwards, and The Lights of Earth. Her collection of short stories, Women in Their Beds, was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the Pen/Faulkner Award, the Rea Award for the Short Story, and a gold medal from the Commonwealth Club.