AmbivaBlog: Tony's Back!

This is the classic children's book, Goodenough Gismo, by Richmond I. Kelsey, published in 1948. Nearly unavailable in libraries and the collector's market, it is posted here with love as an "orphan work" so that it may be seen and appreciated -- and perhaps even republished, as it deserves to be. After you read this book, it won't surprise you to learn that Richmond Irwin Kelsey (1905-1987) was an accomplished artist, or that as Dick Kelsey, he was one of the great Disney art directors, breaking your heart with "Pinocchio," "Dumbo," and "Bambi."

Nice touch, making Blundetto (Steve Buscemi) death's doorman -- and Tony not . . . quite . . . recognizing him. The kids' voices in the bushes calling him back were unavoidably a little corny. But David Chase's unique (as far as I know) and creepy contribution to between-lives literature is the notion -- never occurred to you, right? -- that you might not know who you are. There has always been some part of you that wasn't completely identified with THIS identity, that even protested that it was all an accident, a big mistake. And now it falls away. And Tony is being told that he has to "let go" of even his transitional identity, this sort of hospital gown for the soul that has become a flimsy but comforting covering for his existential nakedness. You could think about it for hours.

Meanwhile, among the living, the universality and simultaneity of grief and greed is only a little bit exaggerated in a Mafia family from what we all know and love. That's what's so riveting about "The Sopranos" -- the heightened familiarity. We can relate. Shakespeare had the Royals . . .

So, will "He went to the Finnerty family reunion" now join "he kicked the bucket" and "he bought the farm"?

UPDATE: Jeez, I have to get over my aversion to watching these episodes a second time. I'm missing things -- you always do. There's so much. I didn't get that it was Livia, Tony's mother, turning away in the doorway of the "Death House." Ann Althouse caught that.