Josephine: The Mouse Singer
by Michael McClure

THE STORY: Josephine is a mouse—but she is also a singer, a creative artist who seeks to be exempted from the nagging demands of the workaday world.

Unfortunately the powers-that-be deny her request, despite the fact that Josephine's singing mesmerizes the other mice, and particularly, Baby, a young male mouse who falls in love with Josephine and wants to marry her and produce little mice.

But Josephine wants only to sing, which points up the conflicts which she, as an artist, must deal with: in her relationship with the public; with society at large; and in her personal life.

In the end there seems to be no satisfactory resolution of her problem, no reconciliation possible between the public and private Josephines, so she simply vanishes—trading an untenable present existence for future enshrinement in the fervent, if inaccurate, memories of her loyal fans.