EGON

A feeble run through some familiar paces. Egon, an animal of indefinite species (he could be a fox--except that his family seems to live in a tree), starts out, child-like, ""to leave home."" His reasons, however, have a blasÉ, adult ring (""He was tired of his mother and father. His sister bothered him. And his brother bored him""), and so does his parents' unconcern. Egon, furthermore, is an artist--whose talent sometimes stands him in good stead in his encounters with one or another animal, and sometimes is totally immaterial. The encounters, too, may or may not have consequences: Egon meets a capybara, for instance, about to swim across a lake because ""it's nicer"" on the other side; a good reason, thinks Egon, but he stays put. He's party to other verbal exchanges (some amusing, some cryptic); has various escapes from danger; and ultimately winds up drawing pictures of all the animals--who, come evening, put on a show (apparently, nightly). . . to which enterprise the otherwise untalented Egon contributes a poster. We leave him among his new friends, planning--as he writes to his parents--to go home ""some day."" It's weakly structured and, even part by part, hardly thought out at all.