How to describe Edward Taylor’s 2 Stories Both Involving an Egg? The nearest I can come to grasping at something suitable would be Kafkaesque. But if Kafka wrote sitcoms rather than nihilistically oppressive novels. In this oddball collection our protagonist awakens to find themselves reborn as an anthropomorphised egg. The whys and wherefores of this situation quickly become of less importance than its practicalities as our central character has to navigate a world where a bath may boil his insides, everyday kitchen utensils become objects of terror, and his Friday night chicken dinner has suddenly lost its appeal…
2 Stories Both Involving an Egg is less concerned with the structure of narrative and more about bringing the reader into a world with a dream-like logic to it. The first story gives us several pages of witty observations on life as a Humpty Dumpty-style human-egg hybrid and the precarious nature of that existence. Suddenly, as dreams often do, it veers off into another storytelling tangent as our eggy hero becomes embroiled in a madcap global chase that begins in the Sahara. Taylor is adept at playing with the structure of the comics page throughout to make his visual gags land as the cartoon slapstick escalates ever more.
In the backup strip ‘Dream Story’ the egg finds itself at a party being held in its own house which is rudely interrupted by the arrival of some unwelcome guests, including a walking spatula and frying pan. Again the tale takes a sidestep into something very different and somewhat reflective as Taylor make meta use of panels and page layouts to bring us into more philosophical territory. Is this all some kind of profound visual metaphor for our protagonist’s state of mind and perception of identity? Or is it just an intentionally rambling piece of silliness? Ultimately it really doesn’t matter. 2 Stories Both Involving an Egg is its own idiosyncratic thing and it’s all the more appealing for that.
Edward Taylor • Self-published, £15.00
Review by Andy Oliver
