The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother

by Gilbert Pearlman

Book by Pearlman, Gilbert

Genres: Humor

124 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 12, 1975

Reviews

[Christopher Rush · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clearly this is not a 4-star book, but, having spent a significant amount of time in disappointing stories and video games, I needed a lighthearted escape, and boy, does this deliver. It's from back in the day when having fun was an acceptable thing in society and culture and humanity, so many of you may not have any idea what I'm talking about.

Also, it's a novelization of a movie made back when having fun was an acceptable thing in society and culture and humanity, so, no, it's not "literature" or even, really, "a book," but it's a giant spoonful of whipped cream atop a giant mouthful of raw cookie dough astride a giant beater-ful of batter, taking you back to those halcyon days when a "snow day" meant "no school," not "sign on to digital on-line pseudo-school"; when watching a new movie required going to a building and taking a rectangular contraption home that required you to press buttons to get it back into the condition you found it in; when the rules to the game were in the lid of the box. Okay, sure, some aspects of those days are possibly better today, but still. Maybe you get the idea.

It's not necessarily better than the movie, though it does have fewer salty lines than the movie, and it does tone down some of the saucy parts of the movie, and it does explain a few of the characters and their motivations better than the movie, and the ending is a bit fuller than the movie ... maybe it is better than the movie.

In any event, only read this if you want an enjoyable respite from the giant whoopsie-daisy that is the twenty-first century (so far).

[Laronda Blessing · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd imagine this is much better watched than read. It's goofy, slapstick, innuendo-filled with the tiniest links to Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes. Funny, but in an extremely juvenile fashion. And again, likely far more enjoyable in film form as this reads more like a screenplay than a novel. Probably should be 2 stars, but my love of Gene Wilder won't allow for that.

[The_J · Rating 3 out of 5]

some amusement, just like the film.

[Emmy]

This book reads like a script. That is, it's incredibly dry, and descriptive of each and every movement and point that the characters make. But, it doesn't flow well. It feels clunky (in a novel format, at least). I feel as though someone sat down to watch the Gene Wilder film that it inspired (or that inspired it; I'm really not sure) and just detailed exactly what happened. Sooo tedious.

I'm sure at the very least, the movie was better. I hope it was.