Instructions is one of my favorite Neil Gaiman poems. As I commented when I listened to Gaiman's Fragile Things short story collection on cd last year, the poem is one of his pieces that I will actively dig out and reread occasionally. In the poem, the narrator instructs the reader on how to survive a fairy tale.
In this hardcover children's book edition, the poem is expanded upon by the fantastic artwork of Charles Vess. Vess may not be as frequent a Gaiman collaborator as Dave McKean is, but to my personal taste he's the more enjoyable of the two (your mileage may vary). Don't get me wrong, I love the work of Dave McKean (and Michael Zulli, and P. Craig Russell). I just love Vess' work a little bit more.
For Instructions, Vess posits the main character not as a typical human blundering through a fairy tale, but as a humanoid sort of canine / feline mix. There are pages in which the character looks decidedly canine, and others in which the face is feline to a fault ... and I found that very intriguing. In Gaiman's Blueberry Girl, Vess had the girl who is the subject of the poem change race and age every few pages; here, he finds a way to embody different aspects of the character without a drastic change in appearance. It works a more subtle magic on the reader, I think, as well as focusing less attention on the gender of the character being instructed.
A wonderful poem, beautifully illustrated. "Everthing you'll need to know on your journey," the cover copy says. Not just on a journey through a fairy tale, but on a journey through life.Get more detail about Instructions.
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