Review of "Winters’ Tales: Stories and Observations for the Unusual," by Jonathan Winters

 Review of

Winters’ Tales: Stories and Observations for the Unusual, by Jonathan Winters, ISBN 0394564243

Four out of five stars

Comic genius in short stories

 Like the best comics, Jonathan Winters moves to a different and unusual beat. He can take a routine fact or action of life and turn it into comedy material. This book is a collection of short vignettes, most are less than two pages, with a humorous conclusion. In most cases, the story takes an unusual turn at the end.

 For example, the story “The Wedding” is for all appearances a fancy wedding where the bride and her maidens in attendance are beautiful. Yet, at the end it turns out that it is simply being acted out as a scene from a movie. The story “The Blue Hill Massacre” opens as if it is the aftermath of a titanic battle between American and German armies. However, at the end the battle was carried out between two sets of toy army men.

 There was no story that had me laughing. They are all low-key with little tension and no great punch lines. Yet, they end with the sideways move that is both amusing and thoughtful.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review of "Donner Dinner Party," by Nathan Hale

  Review of Donner Dinner Party , by Nathan Hale, ISBN 9781419708565 Four out of five stars Horrible title, good historical rendition   Given that the Donner Party was trapped in the snow on their journey to the west coast and resorted to cannibalism to survive, the title of the book is appalling. Yet, the story is rendered in a historically accurate manner. The original members of the group left Springfield, Illinois with a destination of the area of California near San Francisco. They started on their journey in April of 1846 with high expectations, a large team of oxen and what they thought were more than enough provisions for the journey.   Like many of the people that executed their dreams to go to the west coast, the people of the Donner party underestimated the difficulty of the journey. Unfamiliar with deserts and mountainous terrain, they did not appreciate how hard it was to traverse areas of what was still largely wilderness.   Their fatal mist...
Read more

Review of "The Forty-Minute War," by Janet and Chris Morris

  Review of The Forty-Minute War , by Janet and Chris Morris, ISBN 0671559869 Three out of five stars Absurd initial premise and bad ending   This book begins with an absurd premise, not the event, but the context. A group of committed terrorists manage to acquire a nuclear weapon and a plane. The manage to fly it from Saudi Arabia to Washington D. C. where they detonate it. Distraught over the knowledge that his wife and family have been killed, the American President orders a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. They retaliate and it is all over in 40 minutes. After ordering the strike, the American President takes a gun and kills himself.   There are two reasons why this premise is absurd, one major and the other minor. The major one is that the intelligence services of the United States were aware of the nuclear weapon and had an elite anti-terrorist team on the ground ready to take out the terrorists. However, the team was given a stand-down order. Whil...
Read more

Review of "The Impossibly True Story of Tricky Vic, the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower," by Greg Pizzoli

  Review of The Impossibly True Story of Tricky Vic, the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower, by Greg Pizzoli, ISBN 9780670016525 Five out of five stars Chronicle of an amazing life   Born in 1890 in what is now the Czech Republic, the man originally called Robert Miller went under forty-five different aliases and once actually sold the Eiffel Tower using the name Count Victor Lustig. Hence the name “Tricky Vic” in the title.   His list of other scams is considerable, he was also a counterfeiter and played a scam called the Romanian money box. It was a simple device loaded with a couple of valid bills that supposedly printed out $100 bills.   This account of the life and times of one of history’s most well-traveled and experienced con men is a joy to read. It also contains a very serious lesson, Robert Miller ended up in Alcatraz prison after being convicted of counterfeiting. He left the prison due to serious illness and died shortly afterward..   Robert...
Read more