YOBGORGLE: Mystery Monster of Lake Ontario

by Daniel M. Pinkwater ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1979

Pure fun from Pinkwater, all about what happens to Eugene Winkleman when his parents win a trip to Europe and he spends two weeks in a Rochester motel with 280-pound fast-food-junkie Uncle Mel. Early on, Eugene meets Professor Ambrose McFwain of the Piscean Discovery Institute--the ""weirdo in a rowboat"" Eugene and Uncle Mel have just seen in a low-grade documentary movie--and before long McFwain entices Uncle Mel with a fat man's safari suit to let Eugene come along as assistant on his upcoming Lake Ontario monster hunt. Also on board is Colonel Ken Krenwinkle, a rich Southerner who, disguised as a Sri Lankese used-car dealer, has sold the Professor a three-dollar Hindustan Eight for a research vehicle--and who volunteers his yacht La Forza Materiale when the four explorers swamp the Professor's rowboat. Yobgorgle turns out to be an enormous pink pig--no, it's a pink, pig-shaped submarine--and the final encounter, in the depths of Lake Ontario, is with the submarine's mad captain who in turn turns out to be the Flying Dutchman--and who holds the monster hunters captive until, in a final life-or-death ride, they free him from his curse. There's lots more preposterous craziness, tossed in and built up: the car trophies on Colonel Krenwinkle's walls, the chicken suit McFwain must wear whenever he drives the research vehicle, the secret door in the library that leads nowhere story-wise, the food of all varieties that turns up at every stop. . . . Much of it is just plain silly, but all of it bears the stamp of Pinkwater's unstoppable, inspired imagination.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Seabury

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION