Apr 15, 2004 06:28 PM
4005 Views
(Updated Apr 15, 2004 06:32 PM)
“Break the Rules” screams a popular song in the Tamil movie BOYS. Try as I did to get a new category created for Woody Allen’s book “Without Feathers” I could not. So am gonna break the rules and post the review here. My sincere apologies.
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Books are of two kinds: books that serve as good fodder for you to pull off intellectual conversations at social gatherings – and then books that are best used as ''costlier but politically and morally right'' substitutes to toilet paper (whose manufacture is also being outsourced to India) and of course finally, the books that serve no purpose at all.
Ok, that was supposed to be a humorous anecdote - Pls note that it stemmed from the fertile imagination of a wit who is soon to take the world by storm - Yours truly. Don’t curse me if you found it repulsive - I actually share your sentiments. But it seems there is a big market for such nonsense - or atleast I think so if Woody Allen’s “Without Feathers'' is a 'real' best-seller.
Any book which starts like ''Following are excerpts from the hitherto secret private journal of Woody Allen, which will be published posthumously or after his death, whichever comes first.'' is sure to catch one's fancy. Alas, as they say so often ''nothing is what it seems to be'' and ''Without Feathers'' flatters to deceive. Presented as a collection of 18 humorous (??) pieces, the book is an eclectic mix of essays - some truly great, few good and some downright absurd. The contents range from ludicrous ruminations on serious issues to profound dissertations on topics uninteresting to anyone imaginable.
While long time fans of Allen swear by his distinctive stamp on each of the essays, I can particularly vouch for the two plays in this collection - Death and God. Death, the story of a logical salesman, is simply howlarious and sure to invite curious stares from onlookers as you burst into laughter reading it in public. God is again mad-cap humor at its absolute best - It is a play within a play - set initially in Greece in 500 BC, winding its way through to a climax in New York having the reader in absolute splits throughout. In God Allen divulges the secrets of writing a successful play ''The trick is to start at the ending when you write a play. Get a good strong ending and then write backwards.''
The W h o r e of Mensa is another brilliant piece of prose - dead pan humor that had me laughing hysterically. Allen explains the curious predicament of people who would pay to have a 'quick intellectual experience with a mentally stimulating woman who wants no commitment'. If the Impressionists had been Dentists.. is another delightful series of letters purportedly written by Vincent Van Gogh that had me in guffaws.
Besides these I also enjoyed The Early Essays where he comments on Youth and Love. Check Allen's take on frugality: The grasshopper played all summer, while the ant worked and saved. When winter came, the grasshopper had nothing, but the ant complained of chest pains. Another good read is the officiously titled A Brief, yet Helpful, Guide to Civil Disobedience. Here Allen ridicules the great movements of the past be it the French or Russian revolutions and provides his own witty definitions for demonstrations, marches and hunger strikes.
On the flip side, I found essays like Lovborg's women considered, Fabulous Tales and Mythical Beasts and No kaddish for Weinstein positively boring. Others like Match wits with Inspector Ford and Slang Origins were downright pretentious. The rest of the essays were truly mediocre and it was difficult stifling the increasingly frequent yawns. And yes, if you are someone who swears only by subtle British humor, then you are bound to tag this book as shallow and shockingly disgusting.
The book is full of anecdotes, some funny...
What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.
Then Job fell to his knees and cried to the Lord, ''Thine is the kingdom and the power and glory. Thou hast a good job. Don't blow it.''
He emerged from the hotel and walked up Eight Avenue. Two men were mugging an elderly lady. My God, thought Weinstein, time was when one person could handle that job.
and some, not so funny..
I think, therefore I am. Or better yet, I feel - I have an orgasm.
If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.
I turned and suddenly found myself standing face to face with business end of a .38
Its tough rating these kinda books and ponder as I did for long, I was stuck at 2.5 stars. But to go one way or the other, I tossed a coin and lo, it landed sideways. So please do not read much into my recommendation. (Precisely why I recommended the book but still gave it only 2 stars) This book will catch the fancy of pearl divers - people who are used to sieving through hundreds of oysters to discover a few shiny gems. This book could also interest those who are ready to experiment - after all you win some, you lose some. Lastly this book will hold tremendous appeal to people who are just plain bored and wouldn't mind laughing themselves silly.
