THE JOURNEY OF TAPIOLA
By
Robert Nathan embroidering on practically nothing. A slender story, 150 pages at most, in which whimsy handled with an ingenuous, self-consciously naive manner, is worked to the limit. Tapiola is a timid little Yorkshire terrier who elects to be a hero in the age of heroism, and who leaves the comforts of home for adventure, in company with Richard the canary, who has his heart set on opera. They meet up with a misanthropic rat on the dump barge, and the trio go to Staten Island, where they find life not all they had hoped. Heroism seems not in Tapiola's horizon -- courage fails him at the crucial moment, and ultimately he finds home and security the better part of valor. Not a very satisfying fantasy. Lacks the adroit humor of G. B. Stern's ventures in like vein. It is not spontaneously Nathan.