The Copper Elephant

Adam Rapp

ISBN 10: 1886910421 / ISBN 13: 9781886910423

Published by Front Street, 1999

About this Item

Signed by the Author on the title page. Seller Inventory # 3513

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Copper Elephant

Publisher: Front Street

Publication Date: 1999

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

The Copper Elephant is the riveting story of 11-year-old Whensday, who lives in the Shelf, a toxic wasteland of nonstop poisonous rain ruled by the ruthless Aston Loe and his Syndicate men. Rescued from slave labor to be sold to a childless matron from Top Town, Whensday flees into the Bone Trees, where she meets other renegade "undertwelves"--Oakley Brownhouse and Honeycut. This unlikely trio bands together and learns about love, strength, loss, and survival.

Review:

Picture this: a world where the acid rain is a constant downpour, where you can't go outside without smearing "safe jam" on your exposed skin, where militaristic brutes storm from dwelling to dwelling demanding paper clips, nails, and anything else the Syndicate deems essential. Welcome to the Shelf, Adam Rapp's disturbing and lasting vision of a post-apocalyptic earth. We don't know exactly how it got this bad, or when, but we do know that no one talks about birthdays or Christmas anymore.

On the Shelf, the miserable are corralled together to meet their fates. Elders are taken away in the Flying Fox and never seen again. The Undertwelves are tattooed with numbers and marched off to the Pits--a worse circle of this inferno, where these Digit Kids are forced to break rocks with splittingpicks until they fall down dead. Thanks to the brave kindness of a coffin builder, 11-year-old Whensday has managed to escape the Pits. She takes refuge for a time helping Tick Burrowman build his bodyboxes, but when she fears he's going to sell her, she runs away to the Bone Trees. There she meets Honeycut and Oakley, two other children who have eluded the Pits, and the three make an effort at raw survival.

Whensday tells this gripping, memorable story with the frankness of a child and in a dialect that reflects the brutal reality of the new world order. In such a place there is no time for proper grammar, and words must be invented for each fresh hell (homes are now mere "life holes," the primary food is "cornslop," and coughed up phlegm is "lungpuddles"). But somehow, amid the horror, Rapp manages to weave impressive beauty and hope. Whensday is a character to fall in love with and root for, who understands "Strength don't always come from muscles and size. Sometimes it comes from that stuff that hides in your spit." Most of all, she helps us appreciate the small things: a bird's nest, a spoon, an elephant made of foil. --Brangien Davis