Musings: The Chronicles of Harris Burdick

Almost 30 years ago, Chris Van Allsburg (of Jumanji fame) came out with a book entitled The Chronicles of Harris Burdick.  It was a collection of 14 drawings, each with a tantalizing title and an intriguing caption.  And that's all- no stories attached.  There was an interesting back story told about these stories, about a mysterious man named Harris Burdick who dropped the pictures off, promised more of them and the accompanying stories, and then disappeared, never to be seen again.  And now, fourteen brilliant authors have collaborated to each create a story around the pictures, using their titles and the given captions as additional inspiration.

The contributing authors are all-stars:  Sherman Alexie, Kate DiCamillo, Stephen King, Lois Lowry, Gregory Maguire and more.  The introduction (quite witty) is by Lemony Snicket.  Chris Van Allsburg contributes a story, too.  And the inspiration for the stories?  Excellent.  The pictures are beautifully evocative, and when you combine them with the titles and the captions, it's fabulous fun to think of all the stories that might accompany them, what the characters are doing and what happens at that exact moment.

That, perhaps, is why this collection falls a little flat.  Some of the stories, like Chris Van Allsburg's own, Kate DiCamillo's and Louis Sachar's, are lovely.  Some have that enticingly creepy overtone that Chris Van Allsburg is so good at- especially Sherman Alexie's.  Some just are... well, not nearly as interesting as the stories that I imagined were waiting to be told.  And it's hard, really, to see a picture, read the caption and then center your imagination around a title, and then be disappointed in the story that is actually presented to you.  In this way, the collection will never really be brilliant to anyone who reads it because each story has to stand up to your own vivid imagination, and if your imagination- however vague the story in your head may be- trumps the author's, then you are just left with a feeling of disappointment.

When I think about it more deeply, I almost find it a shame that these pictures now have concrete stories associated with them.  I love the romance of a vanished author whose work has been lost, the world left with only these fourteen clues as to his promise and potential to take us on trips to faraway, fantastical destinations.  Setting these pictures to words, even the words of some of our greatest authors, limits the magic they can create and forces our own imaginations into boxes not of our own making.  So I'd say to get the original version of this book, that gives you just the illustrations and the captions and the titles, and let your imagination create its own vivid stories and characters and possibilities around them, rather than letting these authors lead you down their imagined paths.

Note:  This review is based on an advanced reader's copy.  I received this book for free to review.