Mouse's Much-in-Little

I re-read The Mouse and His Child today for the first time in ages. 

I had forgotten just how weird a book it is.  It is Russell Hoban, but still.  It's marketed as a children's book, and while I haven't read much Hoban there's a distinct difference between Frances and The Medusa Frequency. 

It's got all the charm of sentient toys, but they have almost no agency.  The animal characters often imitate human behavior, and they talk to each other, but various characters are killed and/or eaten as the story goes on - sometimes in the middle of conversations with their killers.  And the discussions of philosophy get a little intense for the grade-school level. 

I imagine a lot of the subtleties are over the heads of young readers, but it works nonetheless.  Though I have to wonder what a modern child would make of wind-up tin toys and tramps. 

I'm sure there's plenty of discussion about its symbolisms and oddities out there - it's over half a century old, after all.  But I still find it fun and entertaining, It's got a happy ending, and a terrific closing line, and it's always nice to see love win out over selfishness. 

But it's still weird. 

(Hoban clearly knew zip-all about actual rat behavior.  The rats are straight up cartoon stereotypes.  But it's forgivable, Manny is a hoot and I rather like his henchrats, poor sods.) 

Just a little lonely, maybe/Thinking of you only, baby