The Impulsive Imp

by Howard O'Brien

A lot happens to the Impulsive Imp on his way from the living room to the kitchen; he steals from the cookie jar and jousts with the cat. However, Roddy and Alice teach the Imp that there are missions in life more important than mischief.

154 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2007

Reviews

[S.M. LANYON · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a pleasant entertaining story, very relaxing 😊 I feel it would have been a great book one of a children's series.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming and imaginative. I confess I only picked it up because the story is told by Anne Rice's father, but I enjoyed it.

[Norman Dicks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably more of a kids book.

[Sumiko Saulson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Howard O'Brien's "The Impulsive Imp" is an entertaining romp with an angry little imp bought into existence as the mystical revenant of a tragic event. The well-written narrative, with it's use of vividly descriptive language and imaginative reworking of the fairytale universe is at once wistfully poignant and wickedly funny. Born full grown from the enchanted splinter of a tree, this mischievous imp isn't evil - he's just misunderstood.

"The Impulsive Imp" demonstrates a mastery of lyrical prose that is consistent with a story written for reading aloud. The clever alliteration was clearly written to keep the fantastic adventure entertaining to the ears of the young children to which he repeatedly read the tale. In that, this book shares a legacy with Frank L. Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", and C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia", each of which were written over the course of time as a part of an oral story told to children known to the author. Like these books, "The Impulsive Imp" has benefited from the process. The finely crafted language is an entertainment in and of itself, apart from the very funny and sometimes moving story of a household haunted by a sometimes lonely, self-pitying, attention-seeking imp with an amazing back story.

What separates it from these other examples of children's literature is that of course, the children it was being read to included Alice Borchardt and Anne Rice, who would grow up to become authors themselves. It is impossible to separate the book from the two future authors he was reading it to: O'Brien excels at witty character dialog in a way that would bring apt comparison to Lewis Carroll, but his attention to detail when describing the appearances of the characters and their settings undoubtedly did have an influence on his daughter Anne Rice, the gothic horror novelist.

All in all, this is a clever children's book, filled with beautiful language that evokes the period in which it was written. It was written back when books for children did not talk down to them or by using overly simplified language. It was written in a time when children's books sought to enrich the child's vocabulary while entertaining, and in both these matters it succeeds.

The book stands on it's own: even if he had not been the father of two successful authors (and the grandfather of another) this book would stand as an excellent example of children's literature in it's heyday, and had it been published in the 40s or 50s I'm sure it would stand as one of the classics today.

Although it seems to be written for 8 to 12 year olds, it is a lovely story that has enough twist and turns to keep the grown ups entertained, and I can highly recommend for readers of all ages.

[David Edmonds · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Impulsive Imp was a story told to Anne Rice and Alice Borchardt by their father, Howard O'Brien, and written down and eventually published. It's about a small, impulsive imp born in a hole in a chimney from a sliver of an oak tree that may or may not have been cursed. Upon his birth, as he tries to come down the chimney to explore his new home, he burns his tail in the fire, and thus he begins his life as an angry imp. In his quest to find food, he angers the family book, Septuagesima, who becomes his mortal enemy. Unfortunately, Septuagesima blames the family children for the missing food, and they are punished, unjustly. Eventually, the imp becomes less impulsive and realizes that there may be more to life than his own selfish, impulsive urges.

Quite frankly, I'm sure the story was told to teach the O'Brien children lessons through the actions of the imp, but I walked away from this story with a general feeling of "meh." I felt no emotional attachment to the imp, nor did I feel sorry for him while it seemed the world was working against him. While I'm sure that this is part of the point, that when the world seems to be working against you, it's probably all in your mind, it just didn't seem to work so well for me.

I always hate writing something that isn't positive about a book, because lord knows that I wouldn't want somebody to write anything negative about anything that I would write, but the fact remains that I just didn't find the story all that intriguing or charming. And given that the story was told for specific children in mind, I feel even worse about not being that enchanted with the story, but this is just the way it is.

[Jean Odom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and funny