Crazy in Poughkeepsie

Another Daniel Pinkwater masterpiece, in which we sojourn to whale heaven.

“Crazy in Poughkeepsie” is Daniel Pinkwater’s standalone, demi-sequel to 2020’s “Adventures of Dwergish Girl,” a YA novel about a sort-of Catskills leprechaun girl whose coming of age involves moving to human civilization, learning the art of pizza-making, getting involved with community radio, venturing to New York City to drink papaya juice and learn mystic secrets from a junk-store owner, and, ultimately, resolving an existential threat to human civilization based on weaponizing a large cohort of Civil War ghosts (she gets help from an ancient witch).

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/25/dwergish-girl/#you-are-a-pickle

If that sounds like a lot, it would be, but not for Pinkwater, whose 100+ books revel in eccentricity, excess, compassion and surrealism. Reading Pinkwater is a bit like the scene in Mary Poppins where Julie Andrews opens her kit bag and pulls a series of impossibly large objects out of it, more and more, making it seem unremarkable (but no less delightful for it).

In “Crazy,” Pinkwater introduces us to Mick, who’s just come home from his first overnight camp experience. While he was away, his older brother, Maurice, has gone trekking in Nepal to find a guru (Maurice has been sold on gurus…