Reviews (3)

An author to meet
If you are unacquainted with Dawn Powell, as I was until just recently, this is an excellent means to begin your acquaintance, with five of her early novels arranged chronologically in one volume.Powell draws the reader along as she unwinds the thread of her narrative, slowing her pace for extended dialogue and description let her stories breath and speeding it to keep the narrative moving and reader engaged.A major benefit of having these five novels together is that the reader can trace the development of Powell's satiric style as it progresses from a spot here and there in "Dance Night" to all pervading in "Angels on Toast" and "A time to be Born". An American Novelist Attains Stature
Dawn Powell (1896-1965) wrote 15 novels which received little notice during her lifetime. Powell was born in rural Ohio. After college, she moved to Grenwich Village in New York City where she lived most of her life. Her novels have a strong element of autobiography. She wrote novels of her early experience in Ohio and novels of her life in New York City and often contrasted the different pacings and values of life in the Midwest and in New York.Her later books are sharply satirical and often cynical.She wrote of love and of affairs and of loss in unconventional situations. Satiric, witty, sharply written and observant fiction
An author of immense popularity, Dawn Powell (1896-1965) wrote satiric, witty, sharply written and observant fiction that went out of print following her death. Then in the early 1990s a renewed awareness of this major literary figure saw the reissuing of her work, only to have it fall back into obscurity once again. Now The Library Of America has brought her work back into print again and in a format that will insure that her fiction will continue to be available to both scholarship and the general reading public for decades to come. Volume 1: Novels 1930-1942 includes Dance Night; Come Back to Sorrento; Turn, Magic Wheel; Angels on Toast; and A Time To be Born. Volume 2: Novels 1944-1962 features My Home Is Far Away; The Locusts Have No King; The Wicked Pavilion; and The Golden Spur. Dawn Powell: Volumes 1 & 2 is a very highly recommended addition to both academic and community library literary fiction collections. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. American Literature - Individual Core Authors    2. American Satire And Humor    3. Fiction    4. Humorous    5. Literary    6. Literature - Classics / Criticism    7. Literature: Classics    8. New York (N.Y.)    9. Ohio    10. Fiction / Classics   

Reviews (4)

This book reads like stereo instructions.
I don't see anything about heaven OR hell. This book reads like stereo instructions. Listen to this: "Geographical and temporal perimeters. Functional perimeters vary from manifestation to manifestation. Oh, this is gonna take some time, honey.

If you're not a member of the Shirley Maclaine cult...
forget it!!! Even if you are, I'm not so sure! As an lay thanatologist, I thought that this would be a fun diversion from what people consider the "morbid" study of death.Wrong!This book is not a humourous take on death, rather a boring and tedious exploration of the afterlife, Shirley Maclaine-I've-been-here-before-where's-my-new-body kind of way.I don't even think that people who believe in reincarnation or an afterlife will find this interesting.I am an avid reader, one who is referred to as a devourer of books.I will even read beauty product labels in the bathroom if nothing else is handy.Given the choice between this book and a shampoo bottle, I'd re-read my Suave bottle in a heartbeat.This is the first book that I have put down with no intention of picking it back up in QUITE some time.I would really like my money back on this one, and this is a rare thing for me.Many bad books are atleast entertaining.Not this one.The title makes it sound like a lot of fun, but the fun ends there.There is a lot of far better death humour out there.Don't settle for this. ...

Synonym:
Before all the hoop-lah about some of the most extreme "Idiot's Guide"s became popular (which are probably copyrighted, although I won't pay tribute to that aspect here) this book came about. Yes, it was most likely spawned by its use in the movie Beetlejuice (due to the fact that the movie was made in 1988 and the book is copyrighted 1992), but that's entirely besides the point. This book explores all the necessities that are needed for beyond the grave. From practical jokes to perform at your own funeral to time passing hobbies. Keep in mind the companion to this, "The Original Handbook for the Recently Deceased: Tech Manual-Field Operator's Edition", is "The Original Handbook for the Recently Deceased: Workbook, Manual, Practicum". This is a great idea for the "hands-on" aspect of being dead. I have nothing but the best of praise for these works and hope that after my funeral, I'll have the social graces of the dead.Read more

Subjects:  1. American - General    2. American Satire And Humor    3. Death    4. Future life    5. Humor    6. Literature - Classics / Criticism    7. Topic - Relationships    8. English    9. Essays, journals, letters & other prose works    10. Humor / Topic / Relationships    11. Literary studies: general    12. USA   

Reviews (66)

Another masterpiece from Vonnegut
In "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" Kurt Vonnegut (one of my favorite authors) takes on the class system, capitalism, and philanthropy to splendid, wickedly funny -- and hopelessly accurate -- effect. It is the tale of the Rosewater family, which has amassed a fortune totalling $87,472,033.61 and devised an elaborate foundation to protect their money from the American government that would try to tax it away from them. Through meaningless acts of "charity" (such as loaning expensive art to a museum for an exhibition, and then taking it back) the foundation ensures that the Rosewater fortune will always be firmly controlled by the Rosewater family. Trouble brews when an ambitious young lawyer decides to prove that the current foundation head, Eliot Rosewater, is crazy so that an estranged cousin can take over -- getting the lawyer a nice chunk of the family fortune in the process. This will not be so difficult to do because Eliot has been doing the unthinkable since taking over the foundation from his Senator father: he has been using it to do actual charitable work. You see, Eliot suffered a breakdown after accidentally killing three innocent firefighters (one a mere fourteen years old) in Europe during WWII. Desperate to atone for his mistake, Eliot has returned to his hometown of Rosewater, Indiana to make a difference in the world. Within a year he has spurned the wealthy families in town who aspire to his company and come to be revered by the impoverished townsfolk as a saint. He helps anyone who needs it -- in one instance he has an abusive husband arrested, then turns around and hires him a lawyer when he can't afford one on his own. To the world at large these are the actions of a man who has totally lost his mind. But has he?
Another Vonnegut Winner
This Kurt Vonnegut novel looks at Eliot Rosewater, a rich eccentric who decides to make the world (or at least his town) a better place.Rosewater is rich, drunk, blessed with a social conscience, and he sets out to help improve the lives of the lonely, the ignored, and the losers in the town of Rosewater, Indiana.For this philanthropy Rosewater is seen as insane or close to it. The story looks at both Mr. Rosewater and some of the people whose world he brightens.The book is a bit depressing at times, but contains a powerful message and quite a bit of critique at greed, hypocrisy and other human frailties.Some may note the similarity of two names (Rosewater, Roosevelt) who believed in helping people.This novel doesn't have quite the power of Vonnegut's top works like SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE, but it's an entertaining read.

Overlooked, but worthy
For me this wasn't on the level of Breakfast of Champions, Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle, etc but it was still very enjoyable and thoroughly Vonnegut.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Humorous fiction    3. Literature - Classics / Criticism    4. Satire    5. Vonnegut, Kurt- Prose & Criticism   

Subjects:  1. Comics & Graphic Novels    2. English Satire And Humor    3. Graphic Satire And Humor    4. History & Criticism    5. Literary Criticism    6. Literature - Classics / Criticism    7. Comics & Graphic Novels / General    8. English    9. Graphic novels   

Editorial Review

At the distance of a half-century, this satiric social fiction is both a treasure and a disappointment. Orwell's wit is priceless--and ruthless--as he describes rural Church of England parish life; the transitory culture of the hops harvest; a brothel's soiled linen; not to mention when his heroine hobnobs with the Trafalgar Square homeless of a bitter winter's night or bullies bored students in a fourth-rate private school: "Last term the girls had behaved badly, because she had started by treating them as human beings, and later on, when the lessons that interested them were discontinued, they had rebelled like human beings. But if you are obliged to teach children rubbish, you must not treat them as human beings.... Before all else, you must teach them it is more painful to rebel than to obey." Read more

Reviews (14)

worthy dream
i read this more as an essay and commentary regarding prewar england.themes of church intollerance, school rigidity, classism, bigotry, etc. abound.one can read this literally, leaving the task confused and befuddled.one should read this metaphorically, perhaps as a dream sequence, to fairly appreciate what orwell sought to accomplish.i enjoyed elements of this for the sheer brilliance of observation.life at the hops camp was particularlly sharp.if one appreciates gritty labor struggles and observations of the religiously constrained, this will be a pile of words worth reading.

Orwell's weakest novel
A Clergyman's Daughter is George Orwell's second novel and probably his weakest effort of the six. The story follows along a particularly low portion of the life of Dorothy, whose father is, as we might have guessed, the local preacher. But rather than give us a proper story, Orwell has simply placed Dorothy in a number of situations intended to point out the various flaws in British society of the thirties.
A thought-provoking book
'A Clergyman's Daughter' by George Orwell (1935)Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. General    3. Literature - Classics / Criticism    4. Literature: Classics    5. Amnesia    6. Belief and doubt    7. Children of clergy    8. England    9. Psychological fiction    10. Satire    11. Young women   

Reviews (12)

Not a Travelogue.
Herman Melvilles, "The Confidence Man," where to begin?
.
As I read this book, I didn't catch all the subtleties of it, and could never be precisely sure whether each confidence man was evil or not- it seemed ambiguous, or at least, the author never once allows the reader to find out definitively that the 'vicitms' are being gulled.However, by the end of the book, this becomes more clear as the second half settles into sxome extremely thought-provoking conversations and exchanges.After reading literary reviews online, the book in its totality makes even more sense as in retrospect its sublte points become clearer.
Horrible and overrated
This is like a precurser to the Beat movement of the 1950's. The sentences are overly long, it's written likea police report so you become overly aware that there is a narrator which takes much away from the telling of the story. The characters are not interesting and the story is boring. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 19th Century American Novel And Short Story    2. American - General    3. Classics    4. Fiction    5. Literary Collections    6. Literature - Classics / Criticism    7. Literature: Classics    8. Mississippi River    9. Satire    10. Steamboats    11. Swindlers and swindling    12. English    13. Fiction / Classics    14. Literary studies: general    15. USA   

Reviews (2)

Psychological Flaws Unexpectedly Unveiled
If you have not yet read The Wapshot Chronicle, I strongly urge you to read that novel before this one.The Wapshot Scandal is written as a sequel to The Wapshot Chronicle, and the situations and character development in the first book are important background for the second one. perseverance pays off
If you enjoyed the Wapshot chronicle, you will enjoy this,however he doesnt get into his stride until Chapter 6, or page 53. I have friends who claim they could never get into this book, and my advice to them is pick itup and start again at page 53 after which there is a great deal of thecustomary absurdity over which we lovers of Cheever drool. Thats all,enjoy!! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Cheever, John, 1912-1982    2. Classics    3. Domestic fiction    4. Fiction    5. Literature - Classics / Criticism    6. Sagas    7. Satire    8. Fiction / General    9. Reading Group Guide   

Subjects:  1. 1785-1866    2. 20th century    3. Criticism and interpretation    4. English Satire And Humor    5. English fiction    6. History and criticism    7. Humorous stories, English    8. Literary Criticism    9. Literature - Classics / Criticism    10. Peacock, Thomas Love,    11. Peacock, Thomas Love   

Reviews (2)

can still be purchased from the Filipino publisher
Why is this book not in print!!!! Most of us never saw this Twain
This book transformed my opinion of Mark Twain -- from the classic, if somewhat shopworn, American humorist we're all forced to read in junior high, into a passionate defender of American ideals. Today, as words like 'war,' 'treason,' and 'patriotism' are once again in the headlines, flags are flying, and nationalist feeling runs high, these essays by Twain, and commentary by Jim Zwick, are as important and timely as they were nearly a hundred years ago.Read more

Subjects:  1. American Satire And Humor    2. Asia - Southeast Asia    3. History    4. History: American    5. Humor    6. Literature - Classics / Criticism    7. Philippine American War, 1899-    8. Philippine American War, 1899-1902    9. Philippines    10. U.S. Foreign Relations   

Reviews (3)

A missed opportunity
A great shame- what could have been a showcase for a wide range of Bill Hicks fans, established and new comics and political satire becomes too close to being an ego trip for half a dozen of the organsiers buddies. Were there really so few contributions to this project that the same names had to be used again and again?
Dead On
If you are a a fan of Bill Hicks, then this is probably the best piece of postmortem merchandise out there. Somehow, it just feels right, and though a few of the rants are not the greatest, most of them are dead on and perfect.
WWBHS is intended as a launching pad
To hear a verbal take on this project...please listen to "Voices" in mutant media at Frequency23 at DotOrg.
Read more

Subjects:  1. American - General    2. American Satire And Humor    3. American wit and humor    4. Humor    5. Literature - Classics / Criticism    6. Topic - Political    7. English    8. Humor / Political    9. Humour    10. USA   

Reviews (1)

It's OK if I like this book too, right?
Just wondering. As a (typically?) paranoid Anglo-American, I may not "get" the secret messages in many of the selections that may or may not be there for an African-American reader, but I found most of the selections in this anthology hilarious. If it inspires anyone of any hyphenation to read complete works by Ishmael Reed or Chester Himes, it will have more than served its purpose.
Read more

Subjects:  1. African American Literature    2. African American authors    3. African American wit and humor    4. African Americans    5. American - African American & Black    6. American - African-American    7. American literature    8. General    9. Humor    10. Literary collections    11. Literature - Classics / Criticism    12. Satire And Humor    13. Humor / General   

Subjects:  1. (Pelham Grenville),    2. 1881-1975.    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Cinema/Film: Book    5. Criticism and interpretation    6. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    7. Film & Video - General    8. Film and video. adaptations    9. General    10. Literature - Classics / Criticism    11. Performing Arts    12. Wodehouse, P. G.    13. English    14. Films, cinema    15. Novels, other prose & writers: from c 1900 -    16. USA   

Reviews (2)

HF is not for HS
It is the heighth of academic arrogonance for high school educators to think they should teach Huck Finn.From an academic standpoint HF is advance college-level literature.

MANDATORY for teachers of HUCK
As a high school teacher in NYC I never attempted Huck without first having the students read from this book.The essays are (largely) insightful and cogent in their arguments pro and con.The places where logic is faulty or Huck is poorly quoted to serve a political end are transparent, giving students a wonderful chance to flex their logic-muscles and make their own opinions about Twain's text.It is an invaluable resource and a very, very important book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1835-1910    2. 19th century    3. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn    4. American - General    5. Finn, Huckleberry (Fictitious character)    6. History    7. History and criticism    8. Literary Criticism    9. Literature - Classics / Criticism    10. Literature and society    11. Satire, American    12. Twain, Mark,    13. United States    14. United States - 19th Century    15. Black studies    16. English    17. Literary studies: 19th century    18. USA   

Subjects:  1. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    2. History and criticism    3. Literary Criticism    4. Literature - Classics / Criticism    5. Satire    6. British Isles    7. Literary Criticism & Collections / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    8. Literary studies: general   

Reviews (3)

CUI BONO?
This book of humorous snippets is at least selected by Frank Muir, which makes a change from John Carey. Frank Muir is an elegant and extremely witty and ingenious virtuoso of the English himself, but I still have to wonder what the possible purpose can be of a farrago of miscellaneous excerpts from different authors. I could have understood collecting a nosegay of the witticisms of some particular writer or of some specific school of writing, but this lengthy tome takes in Smollett, Goldsmith, Poe, Jerome K Jerome, Dylan Thomas, Evelyn Waugh and Beryl Bainbridge, to name but a few. The most astonishing absentee is Oscar Wilde, but some of Bernard Shaw's musical, theatrical and artistic reviews are here. I welcome those thoroughly, as I do the excerpt from a review by Macaulay, but where, I wonder, is A E Housman, whose excoriations of his fellow scholars surpass either of them not only in forcefulness but for sheer hilarity. Otherwise the roll-call of the humorous includes many who are predictable, in no adverse sense. I would certainly have expected to find Dorothy Parker, H L Mencken and Mark Twain, for instance, and so I do. Not all the items chosen are from specific authors - the satirical magazine Private Eye is represented, partly by Auberon Waugh under his own name but also by the spoof diaries and letters of the prime ministerial spouses Mrs Wilson and Mr Thatcher, which are anonymous and may be co-operative efforts. Certain other press series are officially under nicknames, but we all know that Beachcomber in the Daily Express was J B Morton, and that Myles Na Gopaleen of the Irish Times is Brian O Nuallain (aka O'Nolan). The authorship of the Peter Simple column in the Daily Telegraph changed from Colin Welch to Michael Wharton, and not to its advantage in general, but the excerpts here are actually the funniest things that I spotted in the whole book, and I imagine they are the work of the former. His maverick right-wing politics are not my own, but I used to find his stuff irresistible. Other contributors are not household names, possibly not even in their own households, but I would certainly have expected such eminent men of letters as Muir himself and the syndics of the Oxford University Press to have known among them that Humphry Berkeley spelt his first name thus and not `Humphrey'.
A Classic Text...the perfect place to begin an education
Key words in the title: humorous prose.Sure, by sticking to prose, Muir had to eliminate comic masters like W.S. Gilbert, , Preston Sturges, the Pythons, & Bernard Shaw (actually, some of Shaw's great criticism makes it in).But when it comes to humorous prose, this book is the Grand Tour.For the time period it covers, this book has everything.I guarantee you'll discover a new favorite author within a week of buying this tome (and that's the highest purpose of an anthology - giving the reader a new favorite).Muir's editorial introductions and insertions are both enlightening and entertaining, and the man's genuine love of the form shines through in each passage.My only complaint?The book needs updating.Add a hundred pages, and stick in stuff from Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Carl Hiaasen, Tom Robbins, David Lodge, even Helen Fielding.Aside from that, the book is perfect.May a higher power bless Muir for doing such a great and important service to both the readers of this anthology and the writers whose work fills its pages.

An Eye-Opening Survey Of English-Language Humor
An astonishing tour of 400 years of laughs from the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia.Not just the greats like Wodehouse, Twain, and Garrison Keillor but brilliant (but now forgotten) writers, plus cult favorites like Auberon Waugh, Stella Gibbons and P.J. O'Rourke.Highly recommended. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. American prose literature    2. American wit and humor    3. English Satire And Humor    4. English prose literature    5. English wit and humor    6. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    7. General    8. Humor    9. Literature - Classics / Criticism    10. Collections & anthologies of various literary forms    11. English    12. Humour    13. Literature/English   

Subjects:  1. 1901-1909    2. American - Native American    3. American Satire And Humor    4. Essays    5. Frontier and pioneer life    6. General    7. Government relations    8. History - General History    9. Humor    10. Indians of North America    11. Letters    12. Literary Collections    13. Literature: Classics    14. Native American Prose In English    15. Politics and government    16. United States   

Reviews (2)

Excellent compendium
I rank Plimpton as a top five non-fiction writer of the last half century. Unlike a considerable number of these new age "creative non-fiction" writers, his ego is not all over the page nor did he have to stretch to introduce a literary flair to his prose. Plimption can make seemingly boring subjects such as bird counting contests or fireworks museums endlessly fascinating. He also does ample justice to racy subjects such as swinger conventions and his stay at the playboy mansion.
Enjoyable, insightful author
Plimpton's writings tend to be scattered in numerous different and dissimilar publications, thus making an anthology like this particularly useful.Read more

Subjects:  1. American - General    2. Anecdotes    3. Anecdotes, facetiae, satire, e    4. Anecdotes, facetiae, satire, etc    5. Journalism    6. Literary Criticism    7. Literature - Classics / Criticism    8. Plimpton, George    9. United States    10. Biography: general    11. English    12. Novels, other prose & writers: from c 1900 -   

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Anecdotes    3. Anecdotes, facetiae, satire, e    4. Anecdotes, facetiae, satire, etc    5. Asian - General    6. Authors, Chinese    7. General    8. Literary Criticism    9. Literature - Classics / Criticism    10. Literature: Classics    11. Chinese    12. Literary studies: general   

Subjects:  1. Books and reading    2. English literature    3. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    4. General    5. Great Britain    6. History    7. History and criticism    8. Literary Criticism    9. Literature - Classics / Criticism    10. Satire, English    11. British Isles    12. Literary studies: 16th to 18th centuries    13. Literary theory   

Reviews (2)

Daily life in Antiquity.
The contents of this book is only a small portion of what is called the Greek Anthology which consists in about 4000 Greek epigrams (short poems) from the period ca.600 BC - 600 AC. They are collected for the first time in a manuscript of the 13th century.This work is divided in sixteen books each with a different subject.You don't have to read all 4000 epigrams, you just chose a book with a subject you like. The most popular are book V about love, book VII about death and funeral, book XI about Bacchus and satires and book XIV with problems, riddles and oracles. You can learn a great deal about daily life in Antiquity just by reading these short poems (some of them no more than two lines). We read about prostitutes and courtisanes, sailors and fishermen and-for example-about three girls, shy and giggling, offering flowers to the statue of Aphrodite, goddess of Love. If you don't like the rigid books like 'Daily life inAncient Rome', buy a book with poems of the Greek Anthology.
"My soul was on my lips ... "
This volume ( 67 ) of the Greek Anthology is theRead more

Subjects:  1. Ancient, Classical & Medieval    2. Greek poetry    3. Literature - Classics / Criticism    4. Translations into English    5. Other prose: classical, early & medieval