Emile

By Kurt Futterer and Ingrid Futterer, Kurt/ Futterer, Ralf (ILT)/ Macgillis

Book by Futterer, Kurt/ Futterer, Ralf (ILT)/ Macgillis, Ingrid This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1931561958
• ISBN13: 9781931561952
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: MacAdam/Cage Publishing
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 4.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 11.9" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

Beautiful, wonderful book

The artwork in this book is a treat in and of itself. If you love cats, appreciate fine art, or just enjoy a story that reminds you to bring joy and color into your life, then Emile is a wonderful read for both kids and adults.

Futterer Lays It On Thick

Those who cannot read German may thankIngrid MacGillis for translating "Emile," originally published in 1999 as "Emile-Eine bunte Katzengeschichte." No, this is not a sociological treatise about the Katzengeschichte; rather, it is a story of a bored bourgeois cat, illustrated in heavily textured oils. Emile's slightly over-protective and predictable owners do not let him outside--he might get dirty, and besides, say the humans, "outside, there are too may dogs." Initially drawn outside by a hugely vivid butterfly, Emile disobeys and wanders outside--all in search of color. In the French countryside, Emile meets three like-minded color-fiends, and together they paw-paint the entire inside of a house! Flutterer's painting style seems to vary from page to page: Here and there we see fairly abstract paintings all angles and blobs of messy color and varying degrees of perspective, others more conventional, but all of them sharing heavy layering of bright, contrasting paint. Flutterer also uses vertical lines, a la Van Gogh, as well as extreme close-ups of faces to heighten the emotional impact. The house that the cats paint "belongs to a painter named Vincent." The flabbergasted painter, who clearly resembles Van Gogh and is surrounded by slightly wavy verticals, is quoted: "'Crazy, said Vincent, over and over again, "Just crazy." This is either a fairly cheap joke, easy and insensitive, or else Flutterer has somehow transformed Van Gogh into a French beatnik. At any rate, in more imaginative language, Flutterer writes that the painter cats "polka-dotted [Emile] with all the colors in Vincent's paint jars. Emile began to feel like a butterfly." The now butterflies-are-free Emile feels obliged to return to his caretaker family. However, the "shocked" man and woman punish this unexplained loyalty (or whatever motivates Emile's return); the cat is "sent to his basket without any food." All of this is played straight, there's no ironic overtone or melodrama to soften the people's unmistakable cruelty. The resolution comes quickly, on the very next page: "But it wasn't long before the man and the woman relaxed and began to see Emile through different eyes." They decide that Emile is happier now, that they were "color blind," and that the cat, who "had brought color into the house," could now play outside. Emile's influence is so strong, in fact, that the man and woman not only buy colorful flowers, but joyously paint the gray house using bright colors. Emile bursts out of the center of the last page, his arms raised in triumph, and one eye winking, as if to say that color and fun and spontaneity have finally won. Yet, on this very important last page, Flutterer paints the man and woman as if they were brainwashed. There's no ease or fluidity in their raised arms as they paint, and their expression look forced and unnatural. The man's smiling face, which looks fake and almost painted-on, doesn't hide the dull, almost hypnotized look