Ellen Handler Spitz believes it might help us decipher the meaning of the writer’s work, including his posthumously published My Brother’s Book:
Is it possible that the isolation and belligerence of Sendak’s characters may have been fueled by some of his own aggression toward a world that could not accept him as he was? There is Pierre from The Nutshell Library, rebellious and eaten by a lion; Max from Where the Wild Things Are, destructive, banished, and resentful; angry Mickey from In the Night Kitchen, baked in the oven; Ida’s baby sister from Outside Over There, kidnapped by goblins. In My Brother’s Book, aggression emerges when an enormous polar bear reminiscent of Sendak’s wild things both hugs and threatens Guy and begins to eat him “bite by bite.” Even the title of this latest work contains shades of latent violence: After “My Brother’s” comes the instant association “Keeper,” covertly summoning Cain and Abel. In Sendak, however, primal fraternal hostility is displaced from the relationship itself on to cosmic forces and animal savagery.
Eerily, by means of an oblique classical reference, the homoerotic theme and aggression come together in Sendak’s last work. The devouring bear transforms itself into stars and assumes the form of the constellation Ursa Major. Ursa Major, so the myth goes, was created when Jupiter (in the form of Diana) rapes a chaste nymph named Callisto. Juno, to punish her husband Jupiter, turns Callisto into a bear; taking pity, Jupiter then wrings another change, turning the bear into Ursa Major. Throughout centuries, painters have used this story to titillate, showing one “woman” making love to another woman.
The Dish 