William Goldman’s Strange, Sad, Captivating Children’s Book About a Girl and Her Blanket / Rivka Galchen. In: The New Yorker January 31, 2019

Last fall, on an uninspected whim, I changed the syllabus of my children’s-literature seminar, adding William Goldman’s novel “The Princess Bride.” Two days later, I was reading Goldman’s obituary. I don’t believe in ghosts, but I do obey them. I began trying to obtain all his other work, and I discovered that he had written a novella that, unlike “The Princess Bride,” really was written for young children. It is called, quite unfortunately, “Wigger.” Published in 1974, and now little-known and difficult-ish to obtain, it is about the love between a seven-year-old girl named Susanna and her pink blankie, Wigger. Goldman is best known either for writing the screenplay of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” or for his film adaptation of “The Princess Bride.” He also wrote the screenplays for “All the President’s Men” and “Marathon Man,” adapted from his novel of the same name. He wrote expertly in nearly every genre, and quickly—he started and finished one of his novels in a single week—as if fuelled by an intense rage that was very well sublimated. His father committed suicide before Goldman graduated high school. In “Wigger,” Susanna’s parents die in a car crash (by page 2); then her grandmother abandons her (by page 6); then each in a series of four aunts fails, in turn, to have sufficient generosity or love in her heart to care for Susanna (by page 7); and, finally, it is decided that she will be put in an orphanage known simply as the Home. Through all this, Susanna doesn’t cry. This is because her blankie, Wigger, repeatedly tells her to keep a smile on, and that “a cheery face is worth diamonds.” None of us would give Susanna this advice, of course. But Wigger and Susanna have the loving, bickering dynamic of an old married couple. When Susanna gets down, Wigger complains about what a beautiful and ravishing pink blanket he once was, before Susanna’s ceaseless pulling and rubbing. “I’m just a pink rag . . . a faded glory gone to seed,” he says. These bits make Susanna laugh and feel better, “which was exactly how Wigger wanted her to feel.” ... [mehr] https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/william-goldmans-strange-sad-captivating-childrens-book-about-a-girl-and-her-blanket