Richard McGuire
The Orange Book
Mantova, Italy: Edition Corraini, 2001
32 pp., 23 x 23 cm., hardcover
Edition size unknown
Originally published 32 years ago today, The Orange Book was McGuire’s first title for children. It would be followed by Night Becomes Day (1994), What Goes Around Comes Around (1995), and What’s Wrong with This Book? (1997).
The book begins with an image of an orange orchard being harvested, and the sentence “There once was a tree with fourteen oranges”. The book then follows the fate of each individual orange, from tree to plate. One is given to a sick friend, the tenth is eaten by a famous pianist, the seventh is divided among construction workers working atop a skyscraper, the eleventh ended up on the train tracks, etc. etc.
Inspired by a subway sighting, the story reminds me of my favourite John Cale lyric: “Ten murdered oranges bled on board ship”.
Reprinted in 2001, the book is still available from the publishers, here, for €16.00.
"The idea came to me when I spotted an orange on the subway tracks and thought, 'Oh that poor orange, what a tragic fate! What happened to all the other oranges?' I thought about it more as a metaphor for the path of life and individual destiny.”
- Richard McGuire, Then and There Here and Now
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