Shrill Travesty

Once upon a time there was a little jerk of a kid who spent his days underneath an oak tree. After one too many bad deeds - throwing acorns at old people, setting fires with the tree's leaves - the kid is carted off (to juvie, one assumes), and the tree is happy. Good things never last, however, and soon the kid is back, now wanting to go to college (which seems questionable, but let's not quibble). Demanding some apples, the kid is met with incredulous denial: "I'm an oak tree. I can't grow apples. When have you ever seen me grow apples...Is there even a college that takes apples as tuition?" And so it goes, as the boy continues to exploit the tree, at every stage of his life (when not in prison). In final a insult, the kid (now an old man) takes a chain-saw to his arboreal "friend," but it isn't the tree alone that faces the consequence...

From start to finish, from front-jacket-blurb to back, I found The Taking Tree: A Selfish Parody hilarious. Taking Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree as a starting point, 'Shrill Travesty' creates a marvelously satirical tale that pokes fun at just about everything in that classic but much-debated original book. Every aspect of the story is up for grabs, as the general premise (tree gives everything to boy) and specific incidents (the coming and going of the boy over the years) are ruthlessly and effectively parodied. Even the handling of the author photo itself (which has been withheld here by popular request, because apparently it "has terrified more children than the bogeyman") manages to strike a hilarious note. Who hasn't had a discussion of Shel Silverstein's photo, which I have seen described as 'Satanic?' Absolutely hilarious! Recommended to anyone who hates The Giving Tree, or who loves it but has a sense of humor about it.… (meer)