DADS READ: “The Fate of Fausto” by Oliver Jeffers

JER: “The Fate of Fausto” by Oliver Jeffers is a painted fable about power, ownership, and relationships.  Fausto is quickly introduced as a megalomaniac “who believed he owned everything”, and he was willing to stamp his foot, make a fist, and show everything he encountered that he was “boss”. He even tried lying to be able to “own” the “sea” when he professed “I love you very much” and “I understand you deeply” - in an abusive-spouse-sort-of-way.  But when Fausto climbs “overboard to stamp his foot on the sea”, he learns that he did not understand. “The sea was sad for him, but carried on being the sea”.

When my friend Alice first saw this book, she thought it might be a little controversial.  My spouse, Mallory, quickly read through it, and exclaimed, "I'm not sure we should read this to our kids", which made me very intrigued.  The book does deal with death, and depending on whether or not you want to have that conversation with your kids, it might be worth waiting or skipping it.  But since my sister passed away 11 years ago, I've tried to normalize and talk about death as much as possible with my kids.  I could be wrong, but that seems to be the healthiest way to approach the subject to me.  I put together a book with pictures of my sister Liz, so my kids can learn about her, and see the influence she had on my life, and on the influence I hope she continues to have - as I keep her memory alive by talking about her.

When I first read it to Lake, my six-year-old, she found Fausto to be funny, and even when we got to the end she remarked, quite astutely, that "if I was him, I would have just stomped on my boat".  It didn't bring up any questions or discussions about death, but that might be due to our previous discussions on death.  For awhile, when Lake was around four years old, she wanted to talk about death a lot.  My general response has been: "I don't know", because I don't know.  I also like to talk about what science teaches us: our bodies are made up of chemical elements, elements that have been around since the beginning of the universe after the Big Bang.  Those elements are built up into various organisms and compounds, and they get recycled back into other organisms and compounds.  Carbon dioxide gets soaked up by plants and mixed with other chemical elements like carbon.  Then plants get eaten by animals, and humans eat the plants and/or animals.  Humans grow up by taking in various chemical elements through breathing, drinking, and eating, and eventually we die and the chemical elements we've accumulated over time get broken down until they are used by other organisms, rocks, or compounds.  But you will know what is best for your kids.

Despite the heavy topic of death that this book may trigger, I love its exploration of power and ownership.  It is easy to see Fausto as a ridiculous fiction.  A storybook tyrant that throws tantrums until he gets whatever he wants.  But I think Kim Jong-Un could go anywhere in North Korea to “survey what was his”, and like the flower, sheep, tree, field, forest, lake, and mountain - they would all say “I can be yours”, because it wouldn’t be worth sacrificing your life to upset the megalomaniacal fantasies of an absolute totalitarian dictator.  It makes sense, I would probably concede to Kim’s fantasy as well, if I was born in North Korea.  Kim has arrested and executed 340 people since rising to power in 2011, 13 of those were upper level government officials - one of which was executed for having a "bad attitude" in 2016.  If that weren't enough, there are between 150,000 and 200,000 people in prison there.

I am grateful I am not faced with such a grim reality, but to some extent I still fear that I am allowing myself to be “owned” by some organization (i.e. my employer or otherwise), an ideology (i.e. Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, etc.), spirituality (i.e. a religious leader, religion, or church), or another person’s influence.  I think a lot about the flower, sheep, tree, etc. - they were being bullied until they said - “I’m yours”. In this context, it didn’t seem to mean anything to be “owned” by Fausto, other than a verbal acknowledgment and/or bow.  That seems like a worthwhile trade-off: peace and quiet enjoyment for imaginative ownership in Fausto’s head, since they were all able to easily carry “on as before” since the fate of Fausto did not matter to them.”

Thanks goes to my friend Alice Curtin Smith for donating this book to me to review.