Donald Has a Difficulty

This lovely little hardcover was the result of a longstanding correspondence and collaboration between Neumeyer and Gorey. Young Donald is out playing in the woods, when he gets a splinter in the calf of his leg while pushing a tree. Fortunately, his mother is wise in the ways of splinters, and she calls upon her skills to attend to Donald's wound. The text is simple, yet skillfully worded. The illustrations are classic Edward Gorey, especially during a sequence of daydreams that Donald uses to distract himself while his mother sets to work on the splinter. Neumeyer's afterword gives some insight into his friendship and collaboration with the sometimes enigmatic Gorey. This is the kind of quirky, fun book that children will find appealing while their parents marvel at the artwork.

Donald may be small and may be a captive of his inactive, affluent household, but he knows how to take pleasure in the little things. What he finds in the bottom of his upper-crust garbage can fills him with hope and the promise of something he can look forward to each day. This tiny treasure is for all hominids young and old, single and divorced, sane and insane, smokers and non-smokers, and for all others who refuse to be labeled. Again, Peter Neumeyer and Edward Gorey prove that plain text and black & white illustrations can be every bit as delightful as the complex and the colorful.

I've been a mild fan of Gorey for years, but this little book sent me right over the edge. I bring it out and read it to visitors. It helps me decide who my real friends are. The sparse text makes the story that much more surreal and enjoyable.

Haven't seen this book since I was a boy myself, but its republication is one of the great events in the publishing world of 1970. Gorey is, of course, well known for his quirky antiquarian drawings and his bizarre sense of black humor, but his work with Peter Neumeyer isn't as familiar as the stories he wrote on his own. Collaboration didn't make Gorey's particular genius any less strange; indeed it sharpened the wit and the eerie conceptualization of these drawings.Little "Donald" is rather a creepy boy himself, but he's downright appealing next to his mother, who spends the entire book picking a splinter out of poor Donald's leg with a needle and tweezers, and then seeing to the aftermath of his wound with alcohol and a very large pillow. She will remind you of the part Katharine Hepburn played in LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT.Hooray for Donald, Gorey, Abrams and Neumeyer!