It Takes a Village Idiot: A Memoir of Life After the City

by Jim Mullen

Finalist for the 2001 Thurber Prize for American Humor a Rocky Mountain News (Denver) Best Book of the Year
Millions of people dream of abandoning the city routine for a simple country life. Jim Mullen was not one of them. He loved his Manhattan parties, openings, movie screenings. He could walk to hundreds of restaurants, waste entire afternoons at the Film Forum, people-watch from his window. Then, one day, calamity.
His wife quits smoking and buys a weekend house in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York -- in a tiny town diametrically opposed to Manhattan in every way. Slowly, however, the man who once boasted, "Life is just a cab away," begins to warm to the place -- manure and compost and strangers who wave and all -- and to embrace the kind of life that once gave him the shakes.

Genres: Humor, Memoir, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1992

Reviews

[Dan Cassino]

I don’t know how what’s clearly a pitch for a Green Acres style sitcom winds up being condescending to both city folks and rural people, but Jim Mullen manages it. For someone who’s theoretically a humorist, he seems to think that the existence of gay people is funny, even as he notes that they have AIDS. Also weirdly racist in a very old man way (was anyone saying “mulatto” in 2001)? And he can’t decide on a verb sense within any given paragraph? And he thinks that saying “Yanni” is inherently hilarious?
Just talked myself down another star. Yeesh.

[Debbie Brown]

I am trying to make a dent in my "to read" book list. Although I didn't get half the jokes, the ones I did get were laugh-out-loud funny! Life sure has changed since 2001!

[Deidre]

Too easy. Although it touches on the the us/them, cityfolk/flatlanders vs. farmer's/upstate dwellers dichotomy, it was a lil heavy on the snark and lacking in rich detail. Paints a pretty watercolor of the simple life, but I guess I should have expected less from a entertainment weekly author.

[Heather Jean]

This is a well-written, quick and easy read that on the surface is entertaining. My favorite bit was a description of the health food store and the child's name being "Earthshoe." I did chuckle at that.

The book IS funny, that's not the problem. The problem is that somehow as the vignettes unfold, the protagonist becomes increasingly unsympathetic. He turns his high beams on both country neighbors and city folk, and is snide about both, yet somehow it just isn't a pleasant "laughing with" type of humor. He comes across as condescending and arrogant, unpleasant and struggling with a superiority complex that no amount of faux self-effacing humor can quite distract us from.
In contrast, I have enjoyed David Sedaris's work over the years, and find him to be a master of dismembering a person or subject with alarming and hilarious accuracy. Yet he doesn't come across as an unpleasant person. Mullen does not achieve this.

By the time I was finished, I felt that the author, while a fine writer with a sharp wit, is not someone I'd want to have a beer with, no matter how good the beer.

[Wayward Bookshelf]

I just moved from the greater LA area to small town Kansas, & came across this book in the local used bookstore making this a timely read for me. Mullen’s humor was pretty great, at times he finds just the right amount of over the top sarcasm to be downright hilarious. And alongside the humor there is also a warm story of finding home in the unlikeliest of places.

[Jess]

This was a cute, witty book about what you take for granted living in NYC--this cuts both ways; the things you take for granted being modern, easily-accessible, and of good quality and the things you take for granted being exorbitantly expensive, insanely inconvenient, and degraded beyond any possibility of enjoyment by overpopulation.

It was a timely read, as I am currently in the midst of figuring out my next move and trying to find a place of balance in which to make a home. Neither of the places described in this book--the city or the country--are appealing for their extremes. The middle-of-the-road answer then seems to be the suburbs, which of course is no answer for a number of reasons, first of which is that there are too many damn people for the idea to work. You either pay through the nose to be in the burbs closest to the city and still deal with the same congestion you'd have there, or live more cheaply further and further away as you get priced into a commuter's oblivion, paying instead in the hours of your life wasted just getting places.

Fortunately, I've learned that "balance" does not mean "middle-of-the-road"; that splitting the difference 50-50 might be appropriate for some situations but that sometimes balance can mean 80-40 or 90-10, or even 99-1. So I keep hope that there's another answer out there and that finding the right place for me to live is possible.

[Karen]

This is a quick light read about the author's adventures and eventual adjustment to life in the country. Jim Mullen is a hardcore city-dweller when his wife decides to buy a weekend home in the Catskills. Originally he wants nothing to do with it but as time goes on, weekends become Thursday night through Tuesday night and by the end of the book they are full time country-dwellers. And happy to be so. It is meant to be a humorous book but sometimes the humor/sarcasm it a bit too over the top and his lists, of which there are many, are generally too long. After a bit I just skipped over them. I also didn't like the relationship between Jim and his wife. They were very snarky and harsh with each other. It was fine for what it is but I won't be sad to see it leave my house.

[Andrew Rothstein]

Mullin's memoir of his transition from a New York City maven to a Catskill lover is pure fun. Some of the references are dated, but not enough to harm the humor. Having lived in NYC and then outside it, I could relate to how one starts to see things in new ways in a place after experiencing them. Mullin's wry take on everything around him and his keen observations are the kind that make you laugh out loud.

[John Stranges]

My sister Sue who works in a public library gave me this book about 10 years ago. My wife and I raised our family in Chicago and bought a summer home in Wisconsin. We have since both retired and made Wisconsin our permanent home. I have read this book once a year since she gave it to me! Easy and very humorous book. We have a lot of parallels in our transition to country living. Puts a smile on my face every time I read it! Thanks Sue!

[CindySR]

This was pretty funny for the most part, except for all the lists the author made of things. For example, he listed 21 magazines they got in the mail, 34 businesses they would pass on the road in New Jersey, 17 items they bought for chores, not to mention the 16 farm chores list, etc. Then when he bludgeoned to death a woodchuck with a golf club, the book lost a whole star.

[Kathy]

I put this on my to-read list about a decade ago when I was dreaming of moving away in search of a simpler life. I finally got around to reading it now. It’s a light, fluffy, mildly entertaining read. No great insights.

[Theresa Soya]

Fun enough, quick read…reads much more like something in the humor column of the newspaper as opposed to an actual novel. It was enjoyable while also leaving me unsure of exactly what I’ve just read.

[Miriam Schoenig]

Highly entertaining, but I wouldn't keep a copy on my bookshelf.

[Jane Kendall]

Love this Book!!! It will have you laughing until it hurts.

[Shanna]

3.5 Fun, kinda funny, nothing amazing. I enjoyed it though! I didn't feel like the title fit the book that well though.

[Rick Bratt]

This book is full satire. As much as I like it, it gets to be a little much for an entire book. But the author does pull it together nicely in the end!

[Linda Manwaring]

This isn't amazing literature. But with that said it's a fun, entertaining read. The author is the village idiot (a former resident of Greenwich Village who moves to the country). There are amusing comparisons between city and country life.

[Ellen Harkness]

This was a fun book.. Especially if you are from upstate NY.. I enjoyed everything about it.. It was a fun and a quick read..

[Beth Nieman]

Author Jim Mullen's book, "It Takes a Village Idiot," is the hilarious re-telling of his adventures with his wife in the Catskill Mountains of New York state. Mullen, a city-dweller who loves the night life, the arts, and the fine restaurants which are so easily accessed from his conveniently-located (but tiny) Manhattan apartment, is smug when he visits friends who own a weekend house; nothing, nothing could induce him to leave the excitement and sophistication of the city for a rotting rural farmhouse. Nothing except his wife, that is. After she quits smoking, she needs something to do with her hands.
Before he knows what hit him, Mullen and his wife are the owners of their very own rotting farmhouse, financed at a local bank operated from a mobile home. Their entertainment opportunities have whittled down considerably. They can either listen to the single radio station, or go out for a night at Big Pig, the local barbecue joint. Or, they could work on the house. The house needs work. Lots of work.
The Mullens begin to lead a double life. Weekends find them at the farmhouse getting to know their neighbors, making repairs, and trying to figure out why, in March, it’s colder inside the farmhouse than it is outside. Back in Manhattan, Mullen finds himself daydreaming about what he’ll do next weekend in the country.
This tale of city-dwellers overcoming a lifetime of urban conditioning and falling in love with the New York countryside is funny enough to make you laugh out loud. It's a great book to take with you to the beach this summer . . . or maybe to that quaint little mountain cabin you've had your eye on . . .
Readers who loved Betty MacDonald's delightful "The Egg or I" or Eric Hodgin's classic "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dreamhouse" will really enjoy Mr. Mullen's humorous memoir.

[Rebekkila]

I have been looking for this book for years and finally bought it through amazon. The back story is a New York couple buy a weekend house in the Castskills. The story was funny and I completely knew where he was coming from a lot of the time. Everybody knows everyone up there so the newspaper finding out your business is a complete nightmare - stories about who passed a bad check and where it happened. One restaurant in the whole town where if it isn't meat, it's fried. Waving at everyone you pass whether you are in a car or standing in your yard. Not to mention the gruesome farm accidnets. And the way you have to dress while at the farm.
My father grew up on a farm and the family still owns it. As a child we would go to the farm every other weekend and when Iwas a kid I found it to be lots of fun. As a teenager I couldn't stand being up there with nothing to do. This story brought back lots of childhood memories.
I would recommend the book. I liked Jim Mullen before the book because he wrote the Hot List for entertainment Weekly and I used to crack up at the stff he read. Now the Hot List has some other writer who I ok, but not nearly as funny as Jim Mullen.

[Kathy Tracey]

What can I say, this is the book I wish I wrote. A city person moves into a quite, small community and spends time comparing life between the two. While there are some extreme exaggerations, overall there were many laugh out loud moments. Quote from page 178: The guests expect dinner to be on the table. Instead of people asking for the recipe, Sue will hear things like, "I've never had lasagna before," and "I've always heard you could eat asparagus but I never knew anyone who actually did" A green salad will go as untouched as the centerpiece. Dinner should be beef or ham. Chicken they can eat at home. If you want to be really experimental ou can go with roast pork, but people will talk. Vegetables should be creamed, potatoes should be mashed. Anything that cannot be improved by Campbell's cream of mushroom should should be avoided. All desserts must contain either Jell-o, Cool Whip, or miniature marshmallows; the best ones have all three..

If you are looking for a quick read, lots of humor, check this one out. It's no wonder it won several awards for American Humor and Book of the Year.

[Janice]

I began this book strictly for the humor and I did enjoy the self-depricating humor of the author, but about half-way through I realized there was much more to this story. The author lives in NYC, born and raised there and loves it, can't imagine why anyone would live anywhere else. His wife buys a home in upstate NY, in the country, which the author has nothing but distain for, but slowly he learns to enjoy both communities for what they have to offer, but many laughs along the way.

We all live in a small microcosm with knot holes to "see" into other cultures and ways of life but the view is very limited. It's good to remember that we all live very different life-styles, and they all have their rewards.

A quote from the book, "We learned the charm of driving a human-sized car on the same 8-lane divided highway next to an 18-wheeler going 75 mph. If we ever get crushed to death, at least we'd know that it was so some Safeway store in Piscataway could get their weekly shipment of Huggies three minutes early, and not for something stupid!"

[Jackie]

Jim and his wife Sue buy a small farm in the Catskills to use on weekends. At first Jim has a hard time adjusting and misses Manhattan. Usually can't wait to get back. But the weekends become longer until they finally decide to sell their city apartment and move full time to the country. Love how these books are always written by people who have the luxury of writing from home. Would like to see some of these back to the country books by someone more like the rest of us. When you do find one it is about someone who takes on the herculean task of being self-sufficient and off the grid. Need some books by people in between these two. Fun how he makes fun of the locals in the beginning until he becomes one and then sees the silliness of the "flatlander."

[Sharon]

Now this is humor. Such a delightfully funny book, I laughed out loud at times. It's not just funny sometimes; it's funny in almost every paragraph. Jim Mullen is a very fine writer. He and his wife live in Manhattan. She buys an old house 3 hours away in the Catskills and drags Jim there on weekends, which become longer and more frequent stays. This is Jim's hilarious conversion from total immersion in city life to country life, kicking and screaming all the way. The people of Walleye, the country town that is their new home, are lovable and pragmatic and don't think much of flatlanders. Some of the humor is subtle, so be sure not to miss anything.

If you live in New York or have lived there, or have visited there much, this book will be even funnier to you.

[Bridget]

The author started out as such a self-satisfied big city snob, I was prepared to hate him and his anti upstate NY attitude. He turned out to be changeable, hysterically funny, and a writer worth reading. His sharp humor, though I enjoyed it from a distance, has to be embarrassing for his wife. She might be a saint. I think anyone would enjoy this funny memoir of a couple that begins weekending in the country after living for years in New York City.

[Holden Robinson]

I have lived a few short miles from a manure pond, so Jim's book is right up my alley. I thought it was terrific, characters well fleshed out, and I could picture each, so like people I've met during my stay in upstate New York. I'd have loved it to be a bit more wacky in the humor department, but I'm a wacky humor fan. Overall, terrific read! Daily I looked forward to coming home, curling up, and seeing what Jim and Sue were up to next.

[Suzan]

This was a hilarious book that had me laughing out loud and missing NYC tremendously! As a transplant from NYC to "the country" myself it made me realize not only what I miss about NYC but also what I love about living in the country. So funny even my non reading husband has decided to read it, certainly not only a miracle but a stunning recommendation! Easy to read as it's well written and divided into short chunks.

[Pamela Saenger]

Great find picked up at a library sale. A quick, light read about a pair of city slickers who buy a weekend house in the Catskills and their rocky adjustment to the country life told through a series of comical anecdotes. The events take place in the late 80s and early 90s, so it was interesting to read the descriptions of the NYC of that time -- many elements still ring true, but enough has changed that this book is very much grounded in the past.

[Stephanie]

I really enjoyed this book. It's been some time since I read it, and I would definitely read it again. As someone who has lived both in the city and in the middle of the country, I could completely relate! There were portions that were laugh out loud funny, especially if you've ever been in those same situations!

[Jennifer]

Despite being 5 years later, still one of my FAVORITE top-5 books of all time. I have read countless country memories, vet books (i.e. James Harriot), farm stories, etc.; but this one still remains my favorite. Why? Because the stories are witty, original, and realistic. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys animals or the outdoors as much as I do.