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Acres and Pains
If you can spare the time to drive sixty miles into the backwoods of eastern Pennsylvania, crouch down in a bed of poison ivy, and peer through the sumacs, you will be rewarded by an interesting sight. What you will see is a middle-aged city dweller, as lean and bronzed as a shad's belly (I keep a shad's belly hanging up in the barn for purposes of comparison), gnawing his...more
Paperback, 128 pages
Published
November 3rd 1998
by Burford Books
(first published 1972)
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May 26, 2011
Emily
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Those who want to laugh
Recommended to Emily by:
Gary
Shelves:
creative-nonfiction,
memoir
Not a word is wasted when Perelman (whom I love) decides to put pen to paper. This tale of moving from the city to a farm is no exception. His self-deprecating and oh-so-observant wit will have you laughing out loud, forgetting that the reason you think he's so funny is precisely because you recognize so much of yourself in him, which means he could be accused of deprecating you. It doesn't matter. Few writers can lay out so brilliantly, time and again, the way our fantasies can drive us to the...more
S.J. Perelman is my favorite humorist. I love the way he plays with words and sets a scene with eh cleverest turn. This short set is of his families move to the farm life of western Pennsylvania. Though short, it is best to savor each entry and take in the word fun and hilarious situations. Included is his infamous column involving Chicken Inspector No. 23. If you haven't read Perelman before this might be the best to get started as it is the shortest of the collections and a great taste of one...more
Read it many years ago riding on a NY subway train. A woman asked what I was reading because I had laughed aloud. Not as funny this time but enjoyable.
Absurdist vignettes of the author's struggles with country life. Perelman wrote some of the Marx Brothers' material--it shows.
If you come across a copy of this gem, don't pass it by. S.J. Perelman was an incomparable master of literary humor, often imitated but never equalled. These preposterous tales, inspired by his purchase of a farm in Erwinna, Pennsylvania, are not only rollickingly funny, but written in meticulous prose that will send you scrambling for a dictionary that will, all too likely, be inadequate for the job. Perelman's vocabulary is a mind-altering drug.
Jan 28, 2013
Jenna
marked it as to-read
Nov 07, 2012
Denise
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Oct 18, 2012
Laura Childers
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Aug 28, 2012
Teresa
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Jan 02, 2013
James Arvidson
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Sidney Joseph Perelman, almost always known as S. J. Perelman, was a Jewish-American humorist, author, and screenwriter. He is best known for his humorous short pieces written over many years for The New Yorker. He also wrote for several other magazines, as well as books, scripts, and screenplays.
More about S.J. Perelman...
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