All the News from the Salem Inn and In Salem

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

A Walk Through Salem - NOT Your Ordinary Guided Tour

 Mr. Zac, our tour guide

I recently had the pleasure of having coffee with Chris Dowgin, author and illustrator of the book A Walk Through Salem.  A resident of Salem for 18 years, he is as fascinating as his book, with an approachable personality, bohemian dress and hair, and a wide breadth of knowledge of Salem, history and psychology.  (He also has a  penchant for Cadbury bars and milk, like A Walk Through Salem's narrator, Mr. Zac).

A Walk Through Salem features recognizable buildings, people, and places in Salem, rendered in a whimsical, sketchy style. It is a genuine walking tour guidebook, and you can follow the trail and see the sites and sights on the tour.

However, this is not your ordinary guidebook.  For Dowgin has created an alternative Salem that operates on many levels: physical, symbolic, archetypal.  It lends itself to reading more than once to follow Dowgin's take on the classic fairytale structure, which as defined by professor Jack Zipes of the University of Michigan, “awaken(s) our regard for the miraculous condition of life and evoke(s) profound feelings of awe and respect for life as a miraculous process, which can be altered and changed to compensate for the lack of power, wealth, and pleasure that most people experience".



We begin our tour at the Unzipping Tree, in Salem Commons, and urged on by our gnome-like tour guide, Mr. Zac, we are encouraged to enter through the tree into another world.  In this world, we meet the denizens of Salem we may have never noticed before: squirrels that talk, fish and pigs that fly...(what, you've never noticed them before?  That's why you need this book.  You're not paying attention.)  Then getting back home proves to be the hardest part of all...

We visit some of Salem's most famous locations, such as the Lyceum, where Alexander Graham Bell gave his first public display of the telephone, but is now struggling to use his cell phone.  Duke Ellington is playing at the Salem Willows, and the onion domes of the Saint Nicholas Church double as soft serve ice cream, when in season.

What I enjoyed most about this book was Dowgin's sense of wordplay and ironic humor.  As the mom of two little would-be-sugar-addicts-if-I-let-them, this was my favorite page:



Chris will be giving a book signing at Spring Fling at  Old Town Hall.  There will be music, wine, beer, and food from merchants all over Salem. 6-9 PM; tickets $25 in advance, $30 at the door.

The book is also for sale at Pamplemousse, The Salem Inn, the Witch Museum, the Cat and the Fiddle, Remember Salem, the Awakening Guild, and can be purchased online at http://www.mr-zac.com/Buy.html.

4 comments:

  1. Great review Jill. You've piqued my curiosity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What a wonderful and a straight forward spell caster that has brought back joy and happiness into my life Am giving this testimony because am so happy, I want to thank Dr. ojoka for the great thing He has done in my life , He brought happiness back to my life, I never believed in spell casters until my life fell apart when my lover of 6 years decided to call it quit almost when we wanted to get married. I was so emotional breakdown to the extent i could not do anything reasonable again, after 2months in pain before an old friend of mine introduced me to a spell caster on line called Dr ojoka, this was after I have been scammed by various fake spell casters. I was introduced to Dr ojoka a true Spell Caster. In less than 38 hours i saw wonders, my lover came back to me and my life got back just like a completed puzzle, and after 1month later we got married and it was just like a dream to me because i thought i had lost him forever. Thank you Dr. ojoka for helping me but most of all, Your Honesty and Fast Accurate Results. EMAIL HIM FOR HELP: dr.ojokaspelltemple@gmail.com or : through his number +2348144172934
      ARE THE THINGS DR OJOKA CAN THESE
      ALSO CURE.. GONORRHEA, HIV/AIDS , LOW SPERM COUNT, MENOPAUSE DISEASE, PREGNANCY PROBLEM, SHORT SIGHTEDNESS PROBLEM, Stroke, Bring back ex lover or wife/husband..

      Delete
  2. I'm from Canada. I'm here to give testimony of how i got back my husband who left me over 3 months now, we got married for more than 7 years and have gotten two kids. thing were going well with us and we are always happy. until one day my husband started to behave in a way i could not understand, i was very confused by the way he treat me and the kids. later that month he did not come home again and he called me that he want a divorce, i asked him what have i done wrong to deserve this from him, all he was saying is that he want a divorce that he hate me and do not want to see me again in his life, i was mad and also frustrated do not know what to do,i was sick for more than 2 weeks because of the divorce. i love him so much he was everything to me without him my life is incomplete. So i decided to tell my co-worker and when i told her shell told me that there is a Psychic spell caster named Dr. IyaryI that i should contact him that he can solve my problems. So she gave me his email and his website and i contacted Dr. IyaryI and explained everything that has happen to him. And he only tell me not to worry that my husband was going to come back to me just as he left i thought it was a joke. But it was a surprise to me when it happen the way Dr. IyaryI said it. Now i am a leaving testimony to what Dr. IyaryI can do. So if you are passing through similar problem just as i was you can as well contact Dr. IyaryI i know he will still solve your problem as well. Here is Dr. IyaryI email driayaryi2012@hotmail.com And also Reach him on WhatsApp Number: +2349057915709 Thanks Dr. IyaryI

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a wonderful and a straight forward spell caster that has brought back joy and happiness into my life Am giving this testimony because am so happy, I want to thank Dr. ojoka for the great thing He has done in my life , He brought happiness back to my life, I never believed in spell casters until my life fell apart when my lover of 6 years decided to call it quit almost when we wanted to get married. I was so emotional breakdown to the extent i could not do anything reasonable again, after 2months in pain before an old friend of mine introduced me to a spell caster on line called Dr ojoka, this was after I have been scammed by various fake spell casters. I was introduced to Dr ojoka a true Spell Caster. In less than 38 hours i saw wonders, my lover came back to me and my life got back just like a completed puzzle, and after 1month later we got married and it was just like a dream to me because i thought i had lost him forever. Thank you Dr. ojoka for helping me but most of all, Your Honesty and Fast Accurate Results. EMAIL HIM FOR HELP: dr.ojokaspelltemple@gmail.com or : through his number +2348144172934
    ARE THE THINGS DR OJOKA CAN THESE
    ALSO CURE.. GONORRHEA, HIV/AIDS , LOW SPERM COUNT, MENOPAUSE DISEASE, PREGNANCY PROBLEM, SHORT SIGHTEDNESS PROBLEM, Stroke, Bring back ex lover or wife/husband..

    ReplyDelete