Review of
The
Boy of the Three-Year Nap, by Dianne Snyder ISBN 039566957x
Five out of five stars
This story is a
written version of a folk tale told in Japan by itinerant entertainers. Taro is
the young boy and while he is very bright, he is also very lazy. He lives with
his mother and she is getting very frustrated with Taro’s inactivity.
A very rich
rice merchant lives next door and he has a daughter that is the age of
marriage. At this point Taro shows a great deal of initiative and comes up with
a scheme to manipulate the merchant and his daughter into marrying him. It is a
scheme that is within the mold of the lazy, clever trickster that manages to
get what he wants by manipulation of people rather than objects.
Traditional
tales have the poor, young girl managing to marry the prince, this one is the
reverse In this case, the poor male solves his problems of lack of ambition by
tricking people and marrying a wealthy woman so that he can live a life of leisure.
Although the location is Japan, it is a story that can be copied and pasted
into almost every culture.
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