Reynard the House-Wolf is a celebration of Wildness Within and Without. It tells the story of Reynard, an unsuspecting suburban dog who watches TV one night and dares to howl along with the wild wolf on the screen. Summoned by his howling, the wolf visits in a dream and beckons Reynard to forsake his cozy bed and ever-replenishing dog food bowl to seek out the real Nature Channel. The next morning as his human servant is bringing in the groceries, the front door swings wide and the question howls in his Dog-Soul: will he or won't he?
But finding the Nature Channel is not as simple as our Hero hopes: first he must navigate raucous roads with tail-flattened squirrels, slink past city dumpster raccoons running junk food con jobs, answer riddles from sewer alligators, befriend eagles nesting in cell towers, rescue seals battling plastic bags, save a couple black-footed ferrets from extinction, help an escaped farm pig reconnect with his Inner Warthog, and much more! Reynard's quest is entertaining, but it will also inspire readers to reflect on issues such as habitat fragmentation, pollution, civilizational sprawl, mining, and other important ecological topics.
And when at last he reaches the mountains where the wild wolves roam? Well, that's when a whole new adventure begins!
By the end it will be clear: Reynard is all of us, with two paws in the city, two paws in the forest, and snout ever pointed toward the horizon.
Like all fine wild things, Reynard's quest escapes easy definition: at once a graphic novel and an epic poem, here a water-colored fairytale, there a street mural of ones and zeroes, here a goofy comic, there a philosophical treatiseon Eastern versus Western conceptions of Freedom, now suddenly a rock wall of ancient cave art, Reynard the House-Wolf is the sort of transcendent work sure to inspire the deadbeat, warm the heart of the scrooge, and germinate the Wild Seed within us all!
Even the text itself — striving to add no more grey rectangles to a world with plenty already— is a living organism:meandering like a river, slithering like a snake, climbing like a mountain, even spiraling like a galaxy.Even the text itself — striving to add no more grey rectangles to a world with plenty already— is a living organism:meandering like a river, slithering like a snake, climbing like a mountain, even spiraling like a galaxy.
And if we've done our jobs well, then this just might be the rare work to convince readers of all ages that poetry can be something other than dull: along the way, we'll ponder haikus by Japanese Beetles, delight in the limericks of lizards and owls, and even enjoy a bit of wolf rap.
But more than anything, may this work inspire us all to be more like Reynard: daring to roam where the path leads not!
