Murder For Love

shel silverstein

For anyone who ever dreamed of creating stories, or poems, of drawing, or writing songs and plays, but couldn't quite find the originality of expression that set them apart from the pedestrian, Shel Silverstein is their worst nightmare.

When he is asked to write the lyrics for a song, he needs no more than fifteen minutes. A play might need an entire weekend. When I asked him to write a story for this book, he said, "Well, I've never written a crime story in my life. Wait, I have an idea. " He never paused for a breath between those two sentences. The fable that follows, not a story in the traditional form, is that idea. In his various homes, he has drawers full of songs and stories and fables and drawings and plays and poems that he's never gotten around to sending to his agent or his publishers. When he focused long enough to put together a book of his short pieces, it immediately made The New York Times bestseller list. Not for two weeks. Not for two months. The Light in the Attic stayed on the list for more than two years!

Shel Silverstein offered to write another piece if I compiled another anthology someday. I said, "What if you can't come up with an idea?'' He looked absolutely baffled by the notion.

– O. P.

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A problem common to many lauded novels by the new generation of writers is lack of story. While we may not always like the principal characters, they are well drawn and fully realized. The dialogue may be brittle and frequently predictable, but it is crisp and true. Places and ambience come into plain view, even if they are not necessarily where we would choose to be. But nothing happens. The tales move along on a long stretch of road and then stop. The whole experience is as satisfying as one of those food bars consumed by astronauts. One tasted like steak and supplied the same nutrients, but it wasn't the real thing. Neither was the bar that tasted like chocolate ice cream.

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