A nostalgic fable about a guy only a foot tall - lost, alone and looking for love and friendship in a wacky, wondrous world of hobos, gangsters, gamblers, gun molls, showgirls, and other colorful characters.
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By mturpel
Apr 14, 2011
Chumpy is a brilliant, modern fairy tale, taking you back to a time when live entertainment and gangsters actually held a street cred, and style was common even to the under class. A post WW2 fairytale, this book absorbs you into a world we could only hope to survive in, with a main character that is only one foot tall. From the "big game", to the finale, you will read this twice through, just to absorb all the small details the characters are coated in. I can't wait till I can read this to my kid as a bedtime story, and I pray for the story to continue.
His name is not “Chunky”, “Crunchy”, “Charley” or “Chuck”, but Chumpy! Chumpy Walnut. And there’s a little bit of him in each of us. Well, each of us that has ever felt out of place in, or exploited by, a world we never made. In Chumpy Walnut, author Will Viharo has created a classic outsider, a little fellow not more than a foot tall, of mysterious origins, searching for meaning in a world full of those who would oppress, abuse and exploit him. It is a kind of late 1930s post- realist, neo-noir world of gangsters, gun molls, performers and hucksters. Not to say that everyone in Viharo’s harrowing and heartwarming fable is a scoundrel. Chumpy’s adoptive parents, for instance, are simple, down to earth and decent folk. And Chumpy himself, while he may be small in stature, has a heart big as the sky. It is Chumpy’s heart, and a bit of luck, that help him through the machinations of scheming hobos, two-bit gangsters, and unctuous showmen. Does our tiny hero find happiness in the end? If... More > so, does he do it without getting stepped on? Do yourself a favor and read Chumpy Walnut to find the answers.< Less
I loved this entertaining tale of the heroic Chumpy and his adventures and struggles to find his place in the world. Filled with colorful characters and situations, it reads like a movie you'll want to watch again and again.
An incredibly charming, delightful, heartwarming and romantic novelization of a world of Runyonesque cartoon characters and in this world the lonely and sadly sweet journey of the one truly human character…the one foot tall Chumpy Walnut…an amazing story beautifully told…
