A fun question for readers to discuss

[Ropespor]

You have any disconnected literary flotsam floating in your head?

I'll give an example. I remember reading a YA book when I was a kid in which a minor character is an eccentric car dealer. Sometimes he sells a car to a deserving individual for far below its value, but he attaches a quirky condition. For instance, one lucky young man gets a car for a mere fraction of retail; however, he is required to wear a chicken suit whenever he drives it.

I remember neither the author, nor the book, nor even anything about the plot. I just remember that one quirky element.

So, do you have any such pieces of literary flotsam and jetsam bobbing around untethered in your memory? You may not remember the author or even the book, but some element or character impressed itself and has stayed with you. What is it? Discuss.

[SJHigbee]

Great question! However, I do recall the author and the book - Paul Gallico's 'Jennie'... about cats. I recall it moved me to tears at the time and I dreamt of it several times. He wrote an amazing series of books - 'The Snow Goose' 'For the Love of Seven Dolls' and the one about a water droplet.

[John M. Whalen]

It's not exactly literary, but I recall a comic book. It was either a Tip Top or a Sparkler comic. Comic book collectors will recognize these as comics that United Features Syndicate took from the newspapers and put into a comic book format. Each comic book had a variety of strips, including Tarzan, Brick Bradford, Nancy and Sluggo, Katzenjammer Kids. They were just excerpts not complete stories, but each month they'd print the next installment. I bought a used one at a Farmers Market in Pennsylvania when I was a kid. And there was this one with Tarzan, and I remember he was running across a grassy African plain, with the grass about waist high and he had his hands tied behind his back. And he's being chased by some African natives with spears and bows and arrows. And this one native takes aim with his bow and the arrow hits the ape man in the middle of his back. And he keeps running. The natives are chasing him and he keeps running across the plain. I don't have that comic book anymore, but still, after all these years, I can see that, and I always wondered how he got out of it? I'll probably never know.