Title: Giraffes on Horseback Salad
Authors: Salvador Dalí adapted by Josh Frank with Tim Heidecker
Illustrator: Manuella Pertega
Genre: Graphic Novel, Film History, Fiction, and Non-Fiction (bits and pieces of each)
About the Book...
In the 1930's, Surrealist Salvador Dalí and actor Harpo Marx met in Paris striking up a friendship that would ultimately inspire Dalí to write a Surrealist script staring Harpo and including his brothers. In 1937, this script was presented to Louis B. Mayer of MGM Pictures by Dalí and Harpo, but was not well revived and was left to history.
It was this script that Josh Frank set out to track down and present in the form of a graphic novel, presenting several "Shorts" and a "Newsreel" that trace its history, the "Feature Presentation" which is a love story between a man named Jimmy and the Woman Surreal, and an "Exhibition" that follows showing pages from Dalí's notebooks and concept art for the creation of this book.
What I Think...
I don't generally read graphic novels, so I can't really compare this to anything and considering its basis I'm not sure I would be able to anyway because the story is so unique.
I really loved the breakdown of the book and that the table of contents was referred to a Program with each section being, as described above, a part of a moviegoer's experience in the 1930's.
As expected, the story is all over the place encompassing classic Marx Brothers' humor, mostly from Groucho and Chico, and then having dreamlike and sometimes near nightmarish quality as far as the rest of the story is concerned. Interestingly, Harpo who is "cast" as Jimmy has dialogue throughout the "film," which I was having a hard time imagining, since the automatic thing that comes to mind with him lack of talking and a lot of honking.
The artwork is incredibly surreal and in some cases is overwhelming, but it really captures the nature of the story. Parts of it are in monotone, whereas other portions, usually those involving the Woman Surreal, are brightly colored adding to the zany nature of what's occurring.
To Sum it All Up...
A truly bizarre and absurd book, as expected in that Dali's script is the source for it and that it was written with the Marx Brothers in mind, that is not for everyone, but that is well worth the read if you're interested in surrealism, Dali, or the Marx Brothers. ♥️
