Zen's review
The Portable Dorothy Parker (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
by Dorothy Parker
Zen's review
The Portable Dorothy Parker (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by Dorothy Parker
Zen's review
rating:
bookshelves:
chicklit,
poetry,
shortstories,
smartypants
It's not that portable, but Dorothy Parker's a bracing companion for travel, and well worth the bother of lugging her around. I love how mean she was, and she was a fabulous letter-writer: funny, frank and gossipy. Her poetry and short stories do get a bit samey when read all at one go -- themes recur -- but she's such an entertaining writer that it doesn't much matter.
It pleases me that she took up the mantle when P. G. Wodehouse stopped reviewing drama for -- hm, some magazine or the other. Maybe it was the New Yorker. It amuses me that, like Wodehouse, she loathed A. A. Milne. I was surprised when I read her letters that she got so miserable over men -- one thinks of her as being eternally self-sufficient and witty, never discomposed -- but it really shouldn't have been a surprise, considering the stuff she wrote. This is not a good book to read when you are having relationship problems. Or maybe it is. It depends what you're looking for -- comfort and distraction, or som...more
It pleases me that she took up the mantle when P. G. Wodehouse stopped reviewing drama for -- hm, some magazine or the other. Maybe it was the New Yorker. It amuses me that, like Wodehouse, she loathed A. A. Milne. I was surprised when I read her letters that she got so miserable over men -- one thinks of her as being eternally self-sufficient and witty, never discomposed -- but it really shouldn't have been a surprise, considering the stuff she wrote. This is not a good book to read when you are having relationship problems. Or maybe it is. It depends what you're looking for -- comfort and distraction, or som...more
