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383rd out of 1,663 books
—
2,420 voters
Getting Even
by
Woody Allen
The classic, with 316,000 copies sold to date.
Paperback, First, 112 pages
Published
August 12th 1978
by Vintage Books / Random House
(first published 1966)
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I dedicate this review to my friend David Vicsotka. Here is a man that LOVES engaging in those early-in-the-dating-process, sprawling conversations about art, literature, and film that either A) get you laid, and ideally lead to further discussions concerning the wonders of the creative process coupled with additional sexual encounters or B) lead to awkward conversations, reconsideration of sexual interest, fears that this person is a boorish dumb-ass, fears within that potential dumb-ass that y...more
Dec 23, 2010
Mariel
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Hermit the frog
Recommended to Mariel by:
Gonzo style
Review #1: The Lists
I would do a list of my favorite Woody Allen films but I've already done so elsewhere on goodreads. I know it happened in 2003 (or maybe it was 2004. I remember the pain if not the exact date) that these asshole Wes Anderson fans made fun of me for having such a long list of favorite Woody Allen films.
Times that Wes Anderson made me look like an idiot:
1. His stupid fans ganged up on me for having a long list of favorite films. Okay, if my favorite filmmaker was Wes Anderson m...more
I would do a list of my favorite Woody Allen films but I've already done so elsewhere on goodreads. I know it happened in 2003 (or maybe it was 2004. I remember the pain if not the exact date) that these asshole Wes Anderson fans made fun of me for having such a long list of favorite Woody Allen films.
Times that Wes Anderson made me look like an idiot:
1. His stupid fans ganged up on me for having a long list of favorite films. Okay, if my favorite filmmaker was Wes Anderson m...more
8 likes · like · see review
Humor. These absurd little pieces read like they were written by a computer program that learned to write from Mad Libs. The humor is completely random and utterly dry. The stories aren't laugh-out-loud funny -- they're more likely to surprise an admiring snort out of you -- but they are funny (if sometimes funny-strange), crafted with skill and fearlessness (comedy: the one thing Woody Allen isn't afraid of?).
Some favorites: "The Schmeed Memoirs" - Hitler's barber; "Death Knocks" - Death plays...more
Some favorites: "The Schmeed Memoirs" - Hitler's barber; "Death Knocks" - Death plays...more
2 likes · like · see review
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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The best of a brilliant trio of Woody Allen's books -- this is humor writing at its best, most literate, most intelligent. When I was looking up the difference between "heuristics" and "hermeneutics" I realized how deep I was. This is probably the funniest volume of anything I have ever read. I can admit that he's got a formula that sometimes falls flat, but pieces like "The Gossage-Vardebedian Papers" and "Viva Vargas!" hit the perfect notes at the perfect pace.
Hacía tiempo que no releía algo, pero es que realmente necesitaba hacerlo.
Es la clase de libros que sólo alguien acostumbrado a su manera de escribir, de su clase de chistes y su humor snob-intelectual, puede disfrutar. De otro modo puede verse como un montón de palabras pegadas y lanzadas al azar. Sin mencionar que los contenidos culturales que poseen son de alto calibre y sin tener un conocimiento previo, al menos de nombres, puede volverse algo tedioso o confuso, o idiota. Lo que más les gus...more
Es la clase de libros que sólo alguien acostumbrado a su manera de escribir, de su clase de chistes y su humor snob-intelectual, puede disfrutar. De otro modo puede verse como un montón de palabras pegadas y lanzadas al azar. Sin mencionar que los contenidos culturales que poseen son de alto calibre y sin tener un conocimiento previo, al menos de nombres, puede volverse algo tedioso o confuso, o idiota. Lo que más les gus...more
I haven't read his other three collections of prose, but from this book my impression is that people who will especially like this are people who like Woody's sense of humour and his verbal dexterity and wit, and are prone to like absurd, esoteric jokes about philosophy and the ilk, but are not much interested in, or are otherwise unaffected by the heavily emotional and relationship-exploring nature of most post-Love and Death Allen features. I find I don't exactly love either Allen's straight d...more
Eric Von Damage lent me a paperback copy of this and SIDE EFFECTS probably coming up on ten years ago, and I just now read them, finally. Some of the selections are certainly better than others. I think my favorites are THE GOSSAGE-VARDEBEDIAN PAPERS, which recount letters between two men playing correspondence chess, and A LITTLE LOUDER, PLEASE, about an intellectual who simply can't grasp the concept of pantomime. And while I don't like it quite as much as these two, the final selection MR. BI...more
توضيحات سركار خانم شاطريان تا حد زيادي مي توانست خوانش كتاب را براي خواننده راحت تر كند.
هر چند هنوز هم مشكل پاورقي ها به قوت خودشان باقي است و اميدوارم در چاپ هاي آينده پاورقي ها با دقت بيشتي انتخاب شوند. در عين حال از خانم شاطريان انتظار مي رود كه با هماهنگي ناشر، توضيحاتِ خودشان را در قالب مقدمه در ابتداي كتاب قرار دهند اين كار از نظر شخص من بسيار مفيد خواهد بود، براي ايشان آرزوي موفقيت مي كنم و اميدوارم آثار بهتري از ايشان به زودي به دستم برسد؛در انتها توضيحات مختصري از خانم شاطريان كه خواندن...more
هر چند هنوز هم مشكل پاورقي ها به قوت خودشان باقي است و اميدوارم در چاپ هاي آينده پاورقي ها با دقت بيشتي انتخاب شوند. در عين حال از خانم شاطريان انتظار مي رود كه با هماهنگي ناشر، توضيحاتِ خودشان را در قالب مقدمه در ابتداي كتاب قرار دهند اين كار از نظر شخص من بسيار مفيد خواهد بود، براي ايشان آرزوي موفقيت مي كنم و اميدوارم آثار بهتري از ايشان به زودي به دستم برسد؛در انتها توضيحات مختصري از خانم شاطريان كه خواندن...more
Woody Allen es todo un personaje; es un conocido director, actor, escritor y guionista. Este libro es una compilación de sus primeras colaboraciones con el diario The New Yorker.
Nadie se salva, ni la filosofía, ni el arte, ni los revolucionarios, ni el psicoanálisis, incluso la propia muerte... Allen está decidido a enfrentarse a todos, en ocasiones a manera de ensayo, en otras como un dialogo o desde las disparatadas memorias de algún personaje. Debo destacar que para atacar de esta manera se n...more
Nadie se salva, ni la filosofía, ni el arte, ni los revolucionarios, ni el psicoanálisis, incluso la propia muerte... Allen está decidido a enfrentarse a todos, en ocasiones a manera de ensayo, en otras como un dialogo o desde las disparatadas memorias de algún personaje. Debo destacar que para atacar de esta manera se n...more
Classic Woody.
Really, just a compilation of inspired monologues by a stand-up comedian set down in print. But print is not the preferred medium for "Getting Even" (nor for any of Woody's other books); those interested in maximizing the experience are best served by seeking out the audiobook versions (no doubt available via Audible, Amazon, iTunes, etc), which are all read by the inimitable author in all his nebbish-y, paranoid, Jewish glory.
Really, just a compilation of inspired monologues by a stand-up comedian set down in print. But print is not the preferred medium for "Getting Even" (nor for any of Woody's other books); those interested in maximizing the experience are best served by seeking out the audiobook versions (no doubt available via Audible, Amazon, iTunes, etc), which are all read by the inimitable author in all his nebbish-y, paranoid, Jewish glory.
I picked this one off the shelves a couple of days ago. I've read it a couple of times over the years, but not recently. This time, more than ever, it struck me as brilliant. The humor is a mixture of the intellectual and the ridiculous, and that mixture appeals to me strongly. I particularly enjoyed the final piece, "Mr. Big," which reads like something Mickey Spillane would have written if he had been a philosophy major.
Allen, Woody. GETTING EVEN. (1971). ****1/2. This was the first collection of Allen’s thoughts, essays, and phantasmagoria. Most of the pieces were first published in the New Yorker magazine, and are all stand-alone. This is the second time I have worked my way through this book, not realizing that time was passing, and all of a sudden finding I was at the end. On the way I have been entertained and amazed at the variety of Allen’s turgid imagination. Pieces like, “Death Knocks,” and A Little Lo...more
Apr 19, 2009
Erik Graff
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone
Recommended to Erik by:
Betsy Erickson
Shelves:
literature
I was introduced to this collection of essays while home from college during a break, borrowing the copy which I think belonged to my best friend's sister and reading it at their home. Like his early stand-up skits and first movies, this is hilariously funny. If you appreciate Monty Python's mixture of erudition and absurdity, you'll probably like this.
Wading through some of Woody Allen's more interminable films it's easy to forget just how whimsical and funny the guy is/was. His books have a lot more in common with his stand up then they do with his films. this book is by no means perfect but it's a collection of very funny essays and jaunts into one of the cleverest minds in entertainment.
The whole is thing is good (aside from his self-congratulatory pseudo-intellectual name-dropping shit), but I would have given it a good score based on "Count Dracula" alone.
Also great is "A Twenties Memories", a version of Midnight in Paris wherein most everyone is a pretentious idiot. It has a few hilarious lines.
"Gris was provincially Spanish, and Gertrude Stein used to say that only a true Spaniard could behave as he did; that is, he would speak Spanish and sometimes return to his family in...more
Also great is "A Twenties Memories", a version of Midnight in Paris wherein most everyone is a pretentious idiot. It has a few hilarious lines.
"Gris was provincially Spanish, and Gertrude Stein used to say that only a true Spaniard could behave as he did; that is, he would speak Spanish and sometimes return to his family in...more
A bunch of short essays from decades ago when he used to contribute to magazines on a semi-regular basis. Fairly one note, but if you like Woody Allen, still funny. If you can only read one, the piece where the guy cheats death by beating him at gin rummy is hands down the funniest thing in this book.
Getting Even makes Woody Allen look bad at times, for making it obvious that he has the perspective of a snotty intellectual; but the book is nevertheless hilarious. I learned of it when a friend in my college chess club showed me its story "The Gossage-Vardebedian Papers," in which two snotty intellectuals snipe back and forth at each other in a series of letters expediting a game of chess by mail; but some years later, I read the rest of the book, and found the story (whose title I forget) of...more
Definetly shows Woody Allen's genius--a combination of a grasp of philospohy, history and art with the absurd. Some of the stories are brilliant- especially the last story about a private eye hired to find God others go a bit too far and do not make any sense, worse they are not that funny!
A collection of short pieces written for The New Yorker, it's like much of Allen's films (and virtually all of The New Yorker): droll, but not funny. Highlights are an epistolary short of cheating chess players, plus a pretty rad hardboiled gumshoe with a penchant for peignoirs and radical positivism.
Simply one of the greatest comedians, writers, directors of our time, the man is amazing; his charm and wit are hysterical to me. I can never get enough of his wit, humor and charm, and his movies aren't too shabby either. The man is amazing simply put, he is amazing!
Another brief read of more than a dozen short pieces, but much more consistent in tone, pace, and humor than Without Feathers. While that earlier work felt unplanned, each of these are structured to be an overall funny event rather than an excuse to drop some quirky one-liners.
Absolutely first-rate comedy writing. "The Gossage-Vardebedian Papers" if it were written today would be the perfect parody of internet forum board arguments! "The Metterling Lists" is more classic humour that shouldn't be missed by lovers of satire.
Never been a Woody Allen guy and this didn't change that. It's full of inanities, small absurdities, and attempts at randomness that come off like crappy Mad Libs. Dracula gets fooled by an eclipse. A fat man engorges because if God is everywhere he's in the food too ergo more intake means more divinity. To my eyes, it's just poorly executed satire. That said, "The Gossage and Vardebedian Papers" is one of the funnier stories I've ever read. Here, as two friends try to creatively cheat each othe...more
I read a copy at the house of a little girl I babysat for when I was young, back when I liked Woody Allen. The only story I remember is Death Knocks, but just that story alone puts it in one of my all time favorite books.
I listened to this book in audio ready by Woody Allen and I loved it. Woody has a way of crafting dialogue that is really intriguing to me. And I love the way he rewrites history and puts his own little spin to it.
[...] o [...] universo meio psicótico, meio paranóico [de Woody Allen] é reflectido neste livro duma forma assombrosa.
Pedro Morais Cardoso, 2008
http://pedromoraiscardoso.wordpress.c...
Pedro Morais Cardoso, 2008
http://pedromoraiscardoso.wordpress.c...
silly. one story is basically midnight in paris, written fifty years before the movie. neat. a lot of this humor went over my head, so i felt like a valley girl at an intellectual party. waaaaat.
Hay fans de Woody Allen, gente que lo odia, y yo, que no tengo ninguna opinión al respecto.
Este libro confirmó el por qué. Ni siquiera puedo tener una reacción positiva o negativa a la colección de absurdos presumiblemente humorísticos que este libro conjuga.
Lo terminé, pero no me hizo la menor gracia hasta... el último cuento-escrito.
Me dio gusto llegar a él. Más porque mi Kindle dijo que logré llegar al 100%.
Leído. Y ya.
No creo volver a leer nada que tenga a Woody Allen como autor.
Este libro confirmó el por qué. Ni siquiera puedo tener una reacción positiva o negativa a la colección de absurdos presumiblemente humorísticos que este libro conjuga.
Lo terminé, pero no me hizo la menor gracia hasta... el último cuento-escrito.
Me dio gusto llegar a él. Más porque mi Kindle dijo que logré llegar al 100%.
Leído. Y ya.
No creo volver a leer nada que tenga a Woody Allen como autor.
Of his books of short essays, this is by far the funniest. I really liked "A Twenties Memory," but "The Gossage-Varbedian Papers" is one of the funniest things I've ever read.
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| Which story was your favorite? | 1 | 5 | Apr 02, 2012 04:00pm |
Woody Allen (born Allen Stewart Königsberg) is a three-time Academy Award-winning American film director, writer, actor, jazz musician, comedian and playwright. His large body of work and cerebral film style, mixing satire, wit and humor, have made him one of the most respected and prolific filmmakers in the modern era. Allen writes and directs his movies and has also acted in the majority of them...more
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“She wore a short skirt and a tight sweater and her figure described a set of parabolas that could cause cardiac arrest in a yak.”
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21 people liked it
“These modern analysts! They charge so much. In my day, for five marks Freud himself would treat you. For ten marks, he would treat you and press your pants. For fifteen marks, Freud would let you treat him, and that included a choice of any two vegetables. Thirty dollars an hour! Fifty dollars an hour! The Kaiser only got twelve and a quarter for being Kaiser! And he had to walk to work! And the length of treatment! Two years! Five years! If one of us couldn’t cure a patient in six months we would refund his money, take him to any musical revue and he would receive either a mahogany fruit bowl or a set of stainless steel carving knives. I remember you could always tell the patients Jung failed with, as he would give them large stuffed pandas.”
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6 people liked it
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