The Tattooed Potato And Other Clues (1989) - Plot & Excerpts
“The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues” is, I think, just as good as “The Westing Game” in its own way, a Pinkwateresque mystery story with a dash of Gordon Korman. The central mystery here is just as clever and complex as that in “The Westing Game”, only Raskin is mostly far less serious about it. Instead, she takes the chance to make fun of the Great Detective genre: the detective, Garson, and his assistant and our heroine, Dickory Dock (her brother’s name is Donald), deliberately poke fun at the Holmes-Watson relationship even as they use it as the template for their own mystery solving (I particularly enjoyed the running joke in which Dickory, showing more perspicacity than the Great Detective's sidekicks are usually allowed to have, immediately sees through Garson’s disguises). Garson is, unusually for a detective, an artist, and art is central to his detective method: he attempts to extract a portrait of the criminal from a description of the crime (said portraits are in practice abstractions that denote his successful deployment of his little grey cells to solve the mystery, but then again by 1975 figurative painting was out of fashion anyway.) Dickory, meanwhile, is trying to put herself through art school (the art school scenes in particular have a Korman-esque touch to them) by taking a job as his assistant. Their cases mostly come from the Chief of Police, only it soon becomes clear that he has something more in mind than some free policing help. Garson himself, it turns out, has a mysterious past, and seems to be wasting his artistic talent making hack portraits: plus, for some reason he has rented half of his house to some rather nasty blackmailers. It all adds up to brilliant mystery that gets extra points for being genuinely funny, even though the overall tone is more serious than it was in “The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel)”. Plus, Garson and Dickory are, I would say, my two favorite characters in Raskin’s oeuvre: because the book focuses mainly on them, they are more fully realized than any of the characters in “The Westing Game”, even Turtle Wexler. The evolution of their relationship, as Dickory goes from humoring Garson to liking and respecting him, is well-drawn, and Dickory herself — fiercely independent, determined to succeed, and with definite ideas about art (ideas that are quite credible, since Raskin, who started as an illustrator, knows whereof she writes here), plus a backstory featuring the death of her parents that Raskin is careful not to overplay — is both likable and believable. “The Tatooed Potato” didn’t win a Newbery — possibly because the Newbery takes itself a little too seriously to endorse a book whose main character is named Dickory Dock (not to mention a minor character named Eldon F. Zyzyskczuk, as well as the detectives Dinkle, Hinkle, Winkle, and Finkle) — but it stands with “The Westing Game” in establishing Raskin as a children’s author of the first rank.
The most mature of Ellen Raskin's mysteries (though I'm not sure why I feel this way, maybe because Dickory was much older than me the first time I read it, whereas Turtle, and the Carrillon twins were more peers). This book is beautifully constructed, and I was pleased to be able to share it this time, by reading it out loud to my sister on Christmas.Ellen was just fantastic at making names count, always, and I can't ever say, "I am Christina Rosetti," without tearing up. This time as I read it through I wondered for the first time if Garson was meant to be gay, but besides the stereotypes, I don't know (lives in Greenwich Village, 'trim' is used to describe him several times, goes to a gym, other things that are spoilers) - the book was written in '75 so who really knows, but it was interesting to read it with that in mind this time.Still, the names are complex, as she always intends, layers of people, disguises and masks, same as Westing Game, and they're labels for people, same as in Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel) where they're literally MADE UP of their names and labels. It's been just long enough that I didn't remember the details of the solution to each mystery, so that was fun again, and fresh, and the final mystery tore my heart out. I was happy I got to read it aloud and emote.
What do You think about The Tattooed Potato And Other Clues (1989)?
I LOVE The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin and so I was very excited to find this gem at an independent book store in Iowa City. Although not as good as The Westing Game, it was exciting and interesting.Dickory Dock takes a job as a painter's assistant and in doing so finds herself wrapped up in various mysteries. As is Raskin's usual MO, not a single person is who they seem and characters change names and identifying markers on a constant basis. It was fun to try to out guess what was happening. I think my higher kids will like the mystery of this book, but some of my other kids will not understand it, even after they finish reading it (much like The Westing Game).
—Meghan
I read this book as a child, loved it, and promptly forgot about it, as children do. Then, about a week ago, I got a text message from my sister that was something along the lines of "Do you remember a book we read as kids that was something abouta girl named Hickory Dock? And there's a van gogh painting involved somehow?" And light begins to dawn... "Oh, that's right! And something about a potato?" After much google searching of "YA mystery hickory dock van gogh potato" I FOUND IT. And of course I had to reread it. And it was just as excellent as I remembered. Though, in fact, Van Gogh is never actually mentioned, but art is involved.
—Insouciantly
I read this book twice as a kid, and had no idea what was going on through most of it. When I found a cheap ebook copy, I decided to give it another shot.The basic plot is that a young art student named Dickory Dock gets a job as an assistant to Garson, the rich and famous (but 3rd-rate) portrait painter. One night at a party, Garson has too much to drink, and he lectures a stranger on artists' natural ability to see through deceptions. The stranger turns out to be the chief of police, who begins hiring Garson and Dickory to help him solve mysteries. Meanwhile, Dickory is trying to solve the mystery of who Garson really is, and his connection to his evil neighbors, Manny Mallomar and Shrimps Marinara. Parts of the book were pretty funny (lots of names like Dickory Dock and Shrimps Marinara being among the highlights), but in general the author was trying way too hard, and so a lot of her wordplay that's supposed to be clever just comes off as confusing. There are a lot of twists in the plot, which is good, but some of the twists are not very clear. But it was an interesting story (if a little complicated for a kids book), and I liked Garson's ridiculous methods for solving crimes with a minimal amount of information. Overall, I'm glad I read it again.
—Drew
