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Add this to the Is There Anything Dave Eggers Can't Do? file. Not too long ago, I opened the most gigantic (at least in breadth) publisher package I'd seen in quite some time to find It Is Right to Draw Their Fur, a portfolio of "animal renderings" (drawings, that is) from McSweeney's, as drawn by their founder Dave Eggers. And despite whatever "vanity project!" initial resistance I might have had, as soon as I untied the ribbons to open the portfolio, I was won over by the drawings themselves. There was something appealingly humble about the way these animals presented themselves to the author's pencil, which wasn't entirely undermined (and was at times even enhanced) by the ironic or heartfelt or just cryptic sayings that were drawn around them. We have a few samples on our page for the book, including this one:
And this week, with Eggers's home city of S.F. hosting the opening game of the World Series (and possibly headed for their first title since they moved West over 50 years ago) the San Francisco Bay Citizen invited the celebrity scribe to bring his notebook to the game. The results, to my mind, are at least as charming as his animal portraits:
--Tom
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