Tag Archives: humor

April 23, 2015 · 9:45 am

Review: Ending Up by Kingsley Amis

I received an advanced review copy from The New York Review of books. Please visit their website for the full collection of their classics series: http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/.

My Review:
Ending UpIn this comedy about old age, Amis provides us with a geriatric cast of characters living under the same roof who are basically trying to stay as comfortable and happy as possible before they die.  There are five septuagenarians in total, three men and two women.  Although they want nothing put peace in their final years, they manage to annoy each other and bicker to the point where peace is the last thing that any one of them is going find.

Adela is the one who holds the whole operation together by paying the bills, doing all of the cooking and shopping and generally trying to make peace among her roommates.  She is not the most attractive woman and she has never been married but she is the caretaker to everyone in the house to the point that she ignores her own health issues.

Adela’s brother Bernand, the most cantankerous one of the bunch, is also the most amusing.  He has a bad leg which seems to be better or worse, depending on whether or not he is asked to do physical labor.  He provokes the others into arguments during conversation for his own amusement and he is very fond of attempting practical jokes.  His favorite weapons are stink bombs, feces, a squirt gun and urine.

A happy drunk named Shorty is also one of the residents of the cottage.  Shorty loves alcohol and he thinks he is fooling everyone about his habit by hiding bottles all over the house.  He is also the servant of the group and is always cleaning up and serving tea.  Shorty and Bernard are actually ex-lovers, which fact produces a few bawdy jokes throughout the book.

The other woman in the group is a flighty woman named Marigold.  Marigold loves to write letters, spend time with her grandchildren and do everything she can to avoid Bernard.  When Marigold starts losing her memory, she is desperate to keep this secret from Bernard whom she is sure will use this information against her.

The last member of the household is George, a former brother-in-law of Bernard.  George is a kindly old professor who has had a stroke and cannot get around on his own.  The group has taken him in because he has no where else to go and Bernard is not happy about this situation.

ENDING UP is a funny novel about the inevitability of growing old and dealing with the vast array of issues that come along with this mortal condition.  It is ironic and funny that each of these septuagenarians are responsible for his or her own demise at the end of the book.  Thanks again to the New York Review of Books for reviving another great classics.

About The Author:
AmisSir Kingsley William Amis, CBE was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than twenty novels, three collections of poetry, short stories, radio and television scripts, and books of social and literary criticism. He fathered the English novelist Martin Amis.

Kingsley Amis was born in Clapham, Wandsworth, Couty of London (now South London), England, the son of William Robert Amis, a mustard manufacturer’s clerk. He began his education at the City of London School, and went up to St. John’s College, Oxford April 1941 to read English; it was there that he met Philip Larkin, with whom he formed the most important friendship of his life. After only a year, he was called up for Army service in July 1942. After serving in the Royal Corps of Signals in the Second World War, Amis returned to Oxford in October 1945 to complete his degree. Although he worked hard and got a first in English in 1947, he had by then decided to give much of his time to writing.

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April 2, 2015 · 8:42 am

Review: Cat Out of Hell by Lynne Truss

I received an advanced review copy of this book from Melville House through Edelweiss.

My Review:
Cat Out of HellHave you ever wondered what your pet’s voice would sound like if it could talk?  Oh come on, I can’t be the only one!  Well, Roger, the talking cat in CAT OUT OF HELL, has a voice that sounds like Vincent Price.  He is also intelligent, well-read, well-traveled and immortal.

Roger has had a very interesting life and he begins to tell this story to a man named Wiggy.  Wiggy, whose sister Jo has mysteriously disappeared, has inherited Roger from his sister and discovers within a few days that Roger, a tabby cat, can actually talk.  And when he does talk he has a lot of things to say.

Roger is not the only talking cat in the story.  Roger’s long-time best friend, Captain, who is an enormous black cat, can also communicate with humans but, unlike Roger, Captain is evil and sinister.  What else would one expect from a gigantic talking, black cat!

The other main, human, character in the book is Alec whose wife has unexpectedly died.  Together Alec and Wiggy discover that Captain is part of an evil group of cats who are ruled by a Cat Master and have caused more than a few human deaths.  Can Alec, Wiggy and Roger team up and defeat Captain and the evil Cat Master before this satanic and sinister duo can do any more damage?

If you are thinking that the premise of this book is ridiculous, you are correct.  But the writing is so clever and funny that I thoroughly enjoyed every page.  CAT OUT OF HELL is a quick read that will give you lots of good belly laughs.  It will also make you wonder what your pets are really up to when you are not around.

About The Author:
Lynne TrussLynne Truss is a writer and journalist who started out as a literary editor with a blue pencil and then got sidetracked. The author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas, she spent six years as the television critic of The Times of London, followed by four (rather peculiar) years as a sports columnist for the same newspaper. She won Columnist of the Year for her work for Women’s Journal. Lynne Truss also hosted Cutting a Dash, a popular BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation. She now reviews books for the Sunday Times of London and is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4. She lives in Brighton, England.

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March 30, 2015 · 12:00 am

Review: The Dirty Dust by Máirtín Ó Cadhain

I received a review copy of this book from Yale University Press.  This book was published in Irish in 1949 and this is the first time it has been translated and published in an English edition.  The translator, Alan Titley has a well-written introduction at the beginning of the book that includes some interesting information about the history of Irish language and literature.

My Review:
Dirty DustThis book takes place in the cemetery of a small town in western Ireland where corpses engage in conversations that continue the pettiness and gossip that dominated their lives when they were still aboveground.   Caitriona Paudeen, the most outspoken, and the most foul-mouthed in the group has a severe dislike for her sister, Nell and her daughter-in-law.  Caitriona’s vehement dislike of her relatives stays with her on the other side and it seems to intensify when she hears news of their lives as they continue on without her.

THE DIRTY DUST is one of the most unique premises for a book that I have encountered.  The dialogue in the book is not the typical streamlined speech that one encounters in a more conventional narrative; the conversations on which the reader is eavesdropping are bits and pieces of information, complaints, and stories that the corpses are remembering from their former lives.  Because we are oftentimes launched into the middle of a conversation, it is not always clear who the speaker is in the narrative and one has to look for certain clues or turns-of-phrase that are uttered before a speaker can be identified.  The only time new information is introduced to the graveyard is when a fresh corpse is buried.  Each new corpse brings another opportunity for juicy gossip to be spread around the graveyard.

Through the course of their cacophony of conversations, we learn that this group of neighbors and family members are petty, jealous, bigoted, narrow-minded and foul-mouthed.  The town Postmistress opens everyone’s mail, Peter the Publican who owns the tavern waters down everyone’s drinks, and Huckster Joan who is the town merchant poisons everyone with her terrible coffee.  They bring up old arguments about football games, money and wills; they are constantly spying on each other and wondering about the goings on of their neighbors.

Ó Cadhain also demonstrates his writing versatility though the use of philosophical and poetic speeches that occur at the beginning of each chapter or interlude.  At the beginning of Interlude 5 he writes, “Here in the grave the spool is for ever spinning; turning the brightness dark, making the beautiful ugly, and imbricating the alluring golden ringlets of hair with a shading of scum, a wisp of mildew, a hint of rot, a sliver of slime, and a grey haunting of mizzle.” As contrast to what happens in the graveyard he writes, “Aboveground everything is bedecked in the garments of everlasting youth.  Every shower of rain creates a multitude of mushrooms miraculously in the grass.”

THE DIRTY DUST is a timeless and brilliantly funny satire of life in a small town where old grudges are not forgotten, even when neighbors are buried six feet under the ground.  The only difference between life and death is that in death the people in this small town are stuck next to their neighbors from whom they can never escape.

About The Author:
Máirtín Ó Cadhain (1906 – 18 October 1970) was one of the most prominent Irish language writers of the twentieth century.

Máirtín Ó Cadhain was born in Cois Fharraige in the Connamara Gaeltacht in 1906. He is best known for his major novel, Cré na Cille (Dublin, Sáirséal agus Dill, 1949). It has been translated into English as The Dirty Dust, and into many other languages, including Danish and Norwegian.

His short story collections include Idir Shúgradh agus Dáiríre, 1939, and An Braon Broghach, 1948, from which Eoghan Ó Tuairisc translated stories published under the title Road to Bright City (Dublin, Poolbeg Press, 1981); An tSraith ar Lár, (1967); and An tSraith Dhá Thógáil (1970).

A national school teacher in his early life, he was interned for his activities in the IRA during World War II. He became a lecturer in Irish in Trinity College Dublin in 1956, and became Professor of Irish there in 1969.

He died in 1970.

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February 26, 2015 · 12:00 am

Review: The Prank-The Best of Young Chekhov by Anton Chekhov

I received an advanced review copy of these stories from The New York Review of Books.

My Review:
The PrankThese short stories have been collected and published in one volume for the first time and this collection also features two stories that have never before been translated into English.  The book includes an index in which the original publication is mentioned for each story as well as any changes that Chekhov made to each narrative before final publication.

The collection is a humorous and sarcastic commentary on Russian life in the 19th century; Chekhov particularly likes to poke fun at relationships and marriage.  In “The Artist’s Wives,” various types of creative men are featured, including a painter, a novelist and a sculptor, all of whom have trouble controlling their pesky spouses.

Secret lovers, dark humor and narcissism all play a role in the marriages that Chekhov describes.  In “Before the Wedding,” a mother is giving her newly engaged daughter advice about marriage.  She has a long list of complaints about her own husband and tells her daughter, “Marriage is something only single girls like but there’s nothing good about it.”

My favorite story is the one entitled “A Confession” in which a man is writing a letter to his friend to explain why, after 39 years, he is still a bachelor.  He has a few interesting stories about various engagements to women that are foiled because of ridiculous reasons which include a biting gosling, bad writing and hiccups.

The New York Review of books Classics has given us another brilliant and funny collection of translated short stories.  If you are interested in trying to read Russian literature, THE PRANK is a great work with which to start.

About The Author:
ChekhovAnton Chekhov was born in the small seaport of Taganrog, southern Russia, the son of a grocer. Chekhov’s grandfather was a serf, who had bought his own freedom and that of his three sons in 1841. He also taught himself to read and write. Yevgenia Morozova, Chekhov’s mother, was the daughter of a cloth merchant.

“When I think back on my childhood,” Chekhov recalled, “it all seems quite gloomy to me.” His early years were shadowed by his father’s tyranny, religious fanaticism, and long nights in the store, which was open from five in the morning till midnight. He attended a school for Greek boys in Taganrog (1867-68) and Taganrog grammar school (1868-79). The family was forced to move to Moscow following his father’s bankruptcy. At the age of 16, Chekhov became independent and remained for some time alone in his native town, supporting himself through private tutoring.

In 1879 Chekhov entered the Moscow University Medical School. While in the school, he began to publish hundreds of comic short stories to support himself and his mother, sisters and brothers. His publisher at this period was Nicholas Leikin, owner of the St. Petersburg journal Oskolki (splinters). His subjects were silly social situations, marital problems, farcical encounters between husbands, wives, mistresses, and lovers, whims of young women, of whom Chekhov had not much knowledge – the author was was shy with women even after his marriage. His works appeared in St. Petersburg daily papers, Peterburskaia gazeta from 1885, and Novoe vremia from 1886.

 

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September 9, 2014 · 12:00 am

Review, Giveaway and Author Q&A: The Naive Guys by Harry Patz

I am so excited today to bring you a review of The Naïve Guys by Harry Patz. Thanks to Harry for the advanced copy of the book, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Harry also graciously agreed to let me interview him and I think everyone will appreciate his thoughtful answers.  Harry is also giving away 4 copies of his book (open internationally).  Please scroll down to the end of my review to enter to win your own copy, add the book to Goodreads and to connect with Harry through his website and social media.

My Review:

The Naive GuysVergil, Rome’s most famous epic poet, tells the story of the hero Aeneas who, after escaping the burning of his hometown of Troy, wanders the seas in search of a new place to settle.  At the core of Vergil’s Aeneid is the theme of wandering, new beginnings and finding one’s place in life.  It is no surprise that Mark, the main character in Harry Patz’s new novel The Naïve Guys, has a dog eared and well-worn copy of The Aeneid among his treasured possessions in his childhood bedroom.  Mark has just graduated from Boston College in 1992 and he, like his fellow graduates, believes that the job offers will start pouring in.  But after moving back in with his mother and Uncle Frankie, who serves as a surrogate father, Mark realizes that the “real world” outside of the protective walls of college is a lot harder to deal with than he ever imagined.

When Mark finally lands a job as a software salesman at Fishsoft, an up-and-coming company in the infant technology industry, he is too naïve to realize that he failed to negotiate his salary.    As Mark is trying to navigate the world of office politics, he is also trying to keep in touch with his group of old friends who are a link to the happy and carefree days of college.  Mark and his friends have some very funny adventures throughout the book and the author’s sense of humor was one of my favorite aspects to the story.  I laughed out loud so many times while reading the story that my husband stopped asking me what was so funny.

Mark and his friends engage in some of the most interesting and hilarious conversations in the book especially around the topic of women and relationships.  Mark wants to find a woman who is intelligent and with whom he can have stimulating conversation, but she must also be sexy and “stimulate” him in other ways.  Throughout the story Mark has relationships that only fulfill half of this perfect formula.  One of the reasons why I found Mark to be such a likeable character is that he truly wants to fall in love and have a connection with the right woman.  The fact that he can never quite get it right makes him sympathetic and makes us cheer him on and wish for him to find his happy ending.

Sports, especially football, play a prominent role in Mark’s memories about the early 1990’s.  Another reason that I really enjoyed this book is due to the sports references and history.  Mark and his friends use football games as bonding moments and their attendance at the games keeps them close as a group of friends.  When his favorite teams win, their victories serve as a pick me up, especially when Mark suffers low points in his personal and family life.  I have learned through my own students that, whether they are players on a team or fans cheering on the sidelines, participation in athletic events serves to build their self-confidence and to provide them with a sense of belonging to a community.  Part of what helps Mark to cope in his transition period is the fact that he still feels a part of the Boston College community through sports.

I would classify THE NAIVE GUYS not just as literary fiction, but also as historical fiction because of its accurate depiction of life in the early 90’s in New York.  Mark has to use pay phones, e-mail is a new technology that most people don’t know about, and his “laptop” computer is really not at all portable.  For anyone who was in high school or college during the 1990’s this book is a fun and nostalgic read.  The combination of great characters in which the reader becomes truly invested and an interesting plot kept me eagerly turning the pages of THE NAIVE GUYS until the very end.

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Giveaway: Open Internationally:

Harry is giving away TWO signed copies of The Naïve Guys to someone in US/Canada and TWO ebooks to someone in any other country.  Winners will be notified via email on October 2nd. CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

 

About the Author:

Harry PatzHarry Patz, Jr. is a twenty-year veteran of the tech and media industries. He has been a participant of the Nantucket Atheneum Writer’s Group since October, 2013. Harry contributed a short story, “Off Season” for the group’s published anthology collection, “The Moving Pen: A Nantucket Atheneum Writer’s Group Anthology,” published in June, 2014.

Harry holds an MBA from The Johnson School at Cornell University and a BS in Management from Boston College. He resides in Westchester, New York.

Connect with Harry-
Website: www.thenaiveguys.com
Twitter: @harrypatz, @thenaiveguys
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thenaiveguys

Author Q&A:

1. In The Naïve Guys, Mark has a close group of friends that are like family to him. Did you base any of these characters on your own friends?

HP – I definitely drew on relationships from various aspects of my life. Some characters are based on my own friends and acquaintances, some are composites, and many are purely imagined. Some personality traits of my friends were accentuated, while others were combined and deemphasized. And there is a bit of me in each of the “guys,” sometimes from different periods of my life. One of my favorite movies growing up was American Graffiti. I later read that the film’s creator, George Lucas (of Star Wars fame) stated that each of three main characters were based on himself at different stages of his life. His construct made a huge impression on me.

2. Sports, especially football, have a prominent role in “The Naïve Guys”. Why, of all things you could have chosen to explore about the early 90’s, did you decide to include these details in the book?

HP – Mark and his friends are very much trying to figure out who they are, as Mark still lives in his childhood bedroom, with sports pennants of his favorite teams hanging on the wall. In this time of uncertainty, and especially as Mark, Pete and Kostas are all Boston College alumni, the rebirth of that football team provides not only a pastime, but a sense of comfort, belonging and pride for these fellows when they are so unsure of themselves in both the career and (female) relationship aspects of their lives. The nine game winning streak of the BC football team in 1993, including the landmark victory over #1 Notre Dame allowed Mark to push many of the less-established elements of his psyche to the side.

3. Mark is very “naïve” about getting a job when he is fresh out of college. Do you think that young people graduating from college today are just as naïve, more so, or less so about their job prospects?

HP – I am going to cop out here a tad and say both more and less naïve.J On the one hand, today’s college grads, growing up in the age of Columbine and ubiquitous mobile phones, cameras, and “selfies,” are so much more media and tech aware than prior generations. We see brilliant tech founders in high school, let alone those who forego or depart college early. The era of lifetime and long-term employment is dissolving from their parents’ and grandparents’ generations right before their eyes, so they are focused on not just getting a job but acquiring skills, all within a great work environment. And they lead very public lives; it’s just in their DNA.

On the other hand, I’m not sure, in general (to be fair), that they have developed the deepest level of reading, oratory, and critical thinking skills that prior generations had. While every college will extol their first class sushi bar and fitness facilities, I’m not sure they are graduating students with the best foundation to help them lead long-term successful lives, even while working on “the next big thing.”

4. I really enjoyed Mark’s references to the Aeneid in the book. Did you have other parallels in mind between Aeneas and Mark besides the obvious one of transitions ( i.e. both characters at a crossroads in their lives and trying to find their place in life)?

HP – One of the key themes in the The Nave Guys is the balance between fate and free will. What, if anything is predestined, and what is a choice? That choice can be to not make a decision, or to choose a very different path. And it’s not just Mark, it’s Sally, Vinny, Uncle Frankie, and many others who have to grapple with this question.

So for fans of the Aeneid, you may recall that Aeneas is destined to find (create) the Roman race, but he diverges from that path for a dalliance with the beautiful, sexual Dido among other stops on his journey, and we’re not really sure he is going to defeat rival Turnus though it is foretold as such.

I think one can view Mark’s journey through a similar prism. He thinks he is smart and it will all work out for him, but he is unsure if it really will. I always loved that passage in the Aeneid where Aeneas is given three imperatives – establish the peace, spare the vanquished, and crush the haughty. (The passage is much prettier in Latin, by the way). Mark, in his own life and in his own way, with respect to his friends, his family, his work colleagues and the women who enter his life…he tries to do those exact things.

5. At the end of the book Mark mentions traveling the world and alludes to his future. Is there another book in the works about what happens next to Mark Amici?

HP – I was on a long-drive today from Boston to New York and I thought about where the story will pick up for Mark and his friends. So yes, I will continue the journey for them at some point. Like all of us, Mark and the guys will grow in different and unexpected ways.

But to give that next chapter justice, I will take a break from them for a while. I plan to work on a themed short story collection first. Hopefully it is one your readers will enjoy. Thank you Melissa for the time and for sharing The Naive Guys with your readers.

 

 

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