A Fine and Pleasant Misery

by Patrick F. McManus

“A hilarious compilation” ( Los Angeles Times ), A Fine and Pleasant Misery gathers twenty-seven witty, cautionary tales of the outdoor life from beloved humorist Patrick F. McManus in a collection edited and introduced by Jack Samson, long-time editor-in-chief of Field & Stream .

The great outdoors have never been rendered as hysterically as in the reminiscences―true and exaggerated―of Patrick F. McManus. If you’re thinking about getting back to nature, the surreal adventures chronicled here will make you think twice about giving it all up for a life of camping, hiking, and hunting.

Genres: Humor, Comedy, Nonfiction, Short Stories, Outdoors, Nature, Adventure

209 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Patrick F. McManus is an American outdoor humor writer. A humor columnist for Outdoor Life and other magazines, his columns have been collected in several books.

Reviews

[Charles van Buren · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the funniest people I've ever read

An outstanding collection of stories from a great American humorist. Everything from wry observations to roll in the aisles funny. Unless you absolutely hate the outdoors and related sports, hate them with an almost pathological hatred, you should find something funny in these stories. If not, maybe just take up golf.

In the introduction Jack Samson calls Patrick McManus a worthy successor to Robert Benchley. I first met Benchley many years ago in CHIPS OFF THE OLD BENCHLEY and found him to be a very funny man indeed. I find McManus to be even funnier.

My wife and I once traveled a lot by car. I often read McManus to her while she drove. Read until the point that her laughter interfered with her driving, then we would take a break. It got to the point that if any story began along the lines of, "Me and Retch Sweeney" , she started laughing before I could continue reading.

A FINE AND PLEASANT MISERY was the first which I read to her. It still brings fine and pleasant memories. If you enjoy it I also recommend our favorite, THE NIGHT THE BEAR ATE GOOMBAW.

[Darla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though thinly veiled in old-style packaging, the comedy of Patrick F. McManus is timeless and a wonderful alternative to the 24/7 news cycle. With chapters on topics like: The Two-Wheeled ATV, The Backyard Safari, The Great Cow Plot, and one of my favorites -- Cigars, Logging Trucks, and Know-It-Alls (the three greatest threats to the fisherman); you will find yourself smiling and outright guffawing at times. Reading this book is like hanging out at the local watering hole and observing the local boys trading stories and entertaining the crowd. There were so many noteworthy passages, but I think this was one of my favorites:

The Stationary Panic first came to my attention one time when a large but harmless snake slithered across a trail a couple of yards ahead of my wife. She made a high-pitched chittering sound and began jumping up and down and flailing the air with her arms. It was a most impressive performance, particularly since each jump was approximately a foot high and her backpack happened to be the one with the tent on it. The only adverse side effect to the Stationary Panic was that the lone witness to the spectacle could not help laughing every time he thought about it, a reaction quickly remedied, however, by his sleeping most of the night outside the tent in a driving rainstorm. (From the chapter entitled The Modified Stationary Panic)

[MisterFweem · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went through a serious Pat McManus phase when I was in high school. I read and re-read his books and guffawed through them all. Then they sat on the shelf and for the longest time, I didn't pick them up. Decided to re-read this classic this week and found it just as funny as it was way back then.

You don't have to be a sportsman or outdoorswoman to enjoy McManus' humor which harks back to the aw-shucks vein of Mark Twain without ever being bilous. If you enjoy a good tale, some true, some obviously embellished, give McManus a try.

I find in the books I read that if I can identify characters from them with people I meet, the author has created a vivid, true character. I know so many Pats and Trolls and Retch Sweeneys and Rancid Crabtrees to tell me McManus is a master at characterization -- and it probably helps that he's building on real characters. My favorite is Pat's long-time friend Retch, who is like me in many respects: Not too bright, but willing to hang out with Pat and make a fool of himself as necessary. And it's always necessary.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slightly repetitive in the way that all collected-column books tend to be, but still entertaining over 40 years on when talking about times 40 years past.

[Jenna]

This was my dad's favorite book, which I have never actually seen my dad read in my life, so I read it last month. It kind of astounds me that it's my dad's favorite--my dad was an overweight, couch loving, air conditioning supporter who took us camping one time in the 21 years we had together, and we as a family agreed it was not for us. So reading this...I'm boggled. I am now a lot more outdoorsy than my dad ever was, but I could not connect to this book. It was full of groaners, "back in my day" type stories that went on and on for me. I never laughed while reading, and I am so confused if my dad thought this was funny. I thought this would unravel a mystery about who my dad was, since he's been gone for almost 10 years, but it's added another layer to it: Did my dad actually read this book?

[Daniel Hochhalter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started rereading my Patrick McManus collection to, ironically, get my mind off the idiocy going on in the world. Wisest thing I've ever done!

[J.S. Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely hilarious & delightful!!

[Tommy Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was laughing the entire time that I read this book! His short, humorous stories are so clever, and I can really relate since I grew up in Sandpoint doing various outdoorsy activities (same as McManus).

[Joe Stack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of stories about nature and the outdoors that range from light chuckles to laugh so hard your belly muscles hurt.

[P. Christopher Colter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patrick McManus is an author whose work I have to ration myself. He is one of the few who can make me laugh until I am nearly in tears. Unfortunately, if left unchecked, I would probably race through his entire catalogue in the space of a week or so. I can't recommend his books highly enough. Technically, McManus would be classified as an "outdoors" writer, and the vast majority of his essays are themed on hunting, fishing, and the like. But one does not need to enjoy these pastimes, or even know much about them, to fully enjoy McManus' writing. Do yourself a favor and check out A Fine and Pleasant Misery by Patrick McManus. It's probably the best place to start with McManus, and you will undoubtedly be hooked by it.

[Carole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our book group was tired of sad, gripping WW II stories so we read anything by Patrick McManus and we all enjoyed laughing out loud. Many shared the book with their husbands and laughed together. I put it on my fiction shelf because while some may be true a master storyteller has embellished it so much that the story becomes your wildest happy dreams of growing up. I've read many McManus books and this review would fit them all.

[Ellie Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is hilarious!!! It helps that my grandfather must have been the inspiration for this book so that makes it even funnier for me. Whenever I’m sinking into a depressed state, I grab this book to cheer me up.

[Chelfea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patrick McManus books are the stories of my childhood, and I will forever love them.

[Mike Degen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got to read one of dads favorite books and possibly the only book he’s read in the last ten years

[Finn Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being one of the most hilarious experiences of reading, A Fine and Pleasant Misery contains many cautionary tales of outdoor life. It makes you feel like you're experiencing these tales of hunting, fishing, camping and growing up with the Author through every chapter. I think most people would think that this story looks like a book that is similar to the "National Lampoon" movies, but I think it really isn't. Though the author tells many stories of failed experiences in the great outdoors, he allows us to feel as if we're there with him. The author definitely gives us readers something to relate to. And if you're looking to getting back out there into the wilderness, then I wouldn't recommend this book. Personally, I never read books more than once, but I've read the individual, twisted tales many times. I think A Fine and Pleasant Misery is always a great book to bring with you on camping trips or on rainy days. If you liked A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, you're definitely going to love A Fine and Pleasant Misery. It makes you laugh, it makes you cringe, and best of all it, it makes you laugh some more.

[Dallin Kohler · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is not often that a book makes you laugh out loud multiple times while reading it. This is one of those books. Absolutely hilarious.
It is definitely old--old enough that he references the Los Angeles Rams (before they moved to St. Louis and then back to LA)--but still relatable to anyone who has spent a lot of time in the outdoors.
My favorite part:
"[If you're lost in the woods] you can try your hand at catching some large fish. If you're successful, three anglers will immediately emerge from the brush and ask you what bait you're using. In case you don't have a valid fishing license, one of the three will be a game warden who will place you under arrest as soon as he has caught his own limit. But at least you'll be found."

[Jason Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short-stories (essays?) all in the genre of a "fishing tale". McManus's style is dry and witty. His stories are amusing, especially with his hyperbole and elaborated diction. Sometimes, though, it proves to be too much and the stories blend together because they share the exaggeration and self-deprecation of their neighboring stories. I refer to them as "fishing stories" because there is some truth in there, just like a story about the great fish that got away or what not.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most delightful collections of short stories. If you love the outdoors, or maybe hate them, or maybe love to hate them like McManus does, you need to read this book! We've been laughing out loud at the campground every night.

[Jeff Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very funny book! I enjoyed reading this to my 10-year old son. Youth today typically don't spend as much time outdoors as Patrick McManus did as a boy, but this didn't stop my son from laughing and enjoying the tales. Sometimes I would get to laughing so hard that my sides hurt.

[Jay French · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered Patrick McManus through the audiocassettes of his essays and stories, articles from outdoors magazines. The audios, especially the ones narrated by George S. Irving, were truly hilarious. Irving told the stories with the bombast they deserved, particularly the stories involving McManus as a kid with a cast of characters that felt real small town, yet comic. For instance, one Rancid Crabtree keeps showing up to show how foolish outdoorsy bachelors get along.

For this book, “A Fine and Pleasant Misery”, I couldn’t find an audio version, so I went with paper. Crabtree shows up in a few stories in this collection, cantankerous as always. There are 27 essays or stories here, all humorous, and all dealing with the outdoors. There are a few about fishing issues of the day, but a majority of this collection are essays about kids in the outdoors or stories about McManus as a young outdoorsman and his cast of characters – other boys, his dog Strange, wily store owners, wise Granny, and Rancid Crabtree. I think these are where McManus truly shines.

Strangely, three of the stories involve surplus stores, describing the pitiful state that the goods tend to be in, and the effect those goods have on the boys that just have to have that genuine jungle sleeping bag or used Nazi mess kit. I recall from my childhood visiting a surplus store in deep rural Southern Illinois, with the overwhelming smell of long damp canvas, and just full of treasures that my dad wouldn’t let me buy (except for a can of peanut butter from WWII, which I think exploded in the car on the way back from vacation). McManus captured the smell, and the mania, perfectly. Another enjoyable set.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent.

[Serena · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.

[Benjamin Simons · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books are a hoot! I love finishing off a day of camping by reading a couple of chapters from this with the family.

[Will Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you haven't met Pat McManus, let me do you the biggest favor ever: permit me to introduce you.

Patrick F. McManus died April 11, 2018, and I am in mourning; because he is, without exception, the funniest author I have ever read. I own several of his books, and I read them over and over; and there are parts that make me laugh. Every.Single.Time.

He writes as an outdoorsman. Camping (which he defines with the title of this book, as "a fine and pleasant misery"), hunting, fishing, hiking, etc. But you don't have to be outdoorsy to enjoy him. I'm not. You don't have to be male to enjoy him. A letter from a reader in one of them is from a woman who was reading him in bed, found she couldn't put the book down, and late in the night nearly shook her husband out of bed, she was laughing so hard.

The man was a college English professor, for goodness' sake! He could put words together so beautifully it makes me cry. For instance, from "The Further Teachings of Rancid Crabtree":

The morning was one of those impeccable specimens found only in early July in the Rocky Mountains, particularly when it is only the twelfth July you have ever known in your life.

Then he can make you cry laughing with crazy happenings I would dismiss as total nonsense, if I hadn't been a 12-year-old boy myself once.

He published about a dozen collection of his magazine columns (He was a contributing editor to Field & Stream and to Outdoor Life), starting with this one.

Here are a few moments:

"The Modified Stationary Panic" makes me hurt myself laughing every time. Pat teaches that frightening situations happen in the outdoors, notably when you realize you are lost:

I disagree sharply with most survival experts on what the lost person should do first. Most of them start out by saying some fool thing like, "The first rule of survival is DON'T PANIC!" Well, anyone who has ever been lost knows that kind of advice is complete nonsense. They might as well tell you,"DON'T SWEAT!" or "DON'T GET GOOSE BUMPS ALL OVER YOUR BODY!"

"Cigars, Logging Trucks, and Know-it-alls" maintains that the greatest threats to the health and safety of the outdoorsman is cigars, logging trucks, and know-it-alls. I dare you to read the column without agreeing with him. And without laughing your heart out.

"With thin ice what you have to do is just walk real fast so it don't have time to break under you. Now git on out there and let's see how fast you can walk. Faster! Faster! Dang it, didn't I tell you to walk fast?"

His critique of taking the family to a national park, "But Where's the Park, Papa?" is dripping with bitterness, but in the hilarious way this fine gentleman, and only he, could do:

I can recall a time when tourists visiting national parks appeared to be folks indulging themselves in a bit of wholesome outdoor enjoyment. Now they seem to have a sense of desperation about them, like people who have fled their homes nine minutes before the arrival of Genghis Khan. Most of them no longer have any hope of seeing unspoiled wilderness, but they have heard rumors that the parks are places where the ground is still unpaved. Of course, if they want to see this ground they have to ask the crowd of people standing on it to jump into the air in unison.

He makes his childhood unforgettable with such columns as "The Two-wheel ATV",

a balloon-tired monster born out of wedlock halfway between the junkyard and the secondhand store. Some local fiend had built it with his own three hands and sold it to my mother for about the price of a good milk cow.

He offers his take on cartography in "How to Fish a Crick", defining the difference between a "creek" and a "crick":

First of all a creek has none of the raucous, vulgar, freewheeling character of a crick. If they were people, creeks would wear tuxedos and amuse themselves with the ballet, opera, and witty conversation; cricks would go around in their undershirts and amuse themselves with the Saturday-night fights, taverns, and humorous belching. Creeks would perspire and cricks, sweat. Creeks would smoke pipes; cricks, chew and spit.

A case in point: One of the maps I possess of the State of Washington labels a small stream as S. Creek....What irks me is that they use the name S. Creek. One does not have to be a mentalist to know that the fellow who named the stream S. did not use the word creek. He used crick/i>. He probably saw right off that this stream was up was a crick and immediately started casting about for a suitable name. Then he discovered he didn't have a paddle with him. Aha!

I could go on for quite a while. But it would be better for you to get the book. Get a lot of his books. You'll thank me.

[Alan Tomkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was great to re-read this and laugh my ass off. I first read McManus's books back in the eighties when I was in high school and college, and in the intervening decades I'd forgotten how funny he was. This book has also made me realize--which I didn't, really, the first time I read it--how lucky I was to grow up in the Pacific Northwest. As kids, my brothers and I made our own countless hours of entertainment in the woods, pastures, and creeks that bordered our back yard. I totally relate to hiking through the woods, only to encounter barbed wire enclosing a cow pasture with at least one Fast Mean Cow between us and where we wanted to go. And always betting we could be quick enough to crawl through the barbed wire, run like hell across the pasture, and shoot through the fence on the other side before the cow got us. Or fishing creeks, floating creeks, camping in the back yard, and on and on. This book really took me back while keeping me smiling, and it frequently had me bursting out in uncontrolled laughter, startling my husband, who isn't used to such displays from me as I sit reading in the recliner or in bed. McManus, besides being hilarious, was a very gifted writer, descriptive and evocative. Now I live in urban California, and my acquaintances here, though they might find these tales humorous, simply can't relate to these stories, at least not from personal experience. I feel very fortunate and grateful for my Pacific Northwest childhood, as well as entertained, having finished this book. I'll re-read McManus's other books soon.

[David Crawley · Rating 4 out of 5]

You Will Be Laughing Out Loud … Patrick McManus views life through funny glasses and does a good job of sharing with his readers the hilarious world he sees. This is a good one to pick up after you have just finished a memoir of a Nazi death camp survivor, and it will help to restore some balance to your literary life. Be prepared for laughing out loud and be sure to have a box of tissues handy for when his humor causes you to completely lose control. -David B. Crawley, M.D. – Author of “Steep Turn: A Physician's Journey from Clinic to Cockpit” and “A Mile of String: A Boy's Recollection of His Midwest Childhood.”

[Nolan Christensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pleasant book- the topics broached revolve entirely around outdoors nostalgia, commentary, and anecdotes. It is a tad dated, but most anyone who grew up in the 80s-90s and spent some time outdoors will appreciate it.

The pacing is steady, the humor dry and direct, the author clearly in love with certain types of juxtaposition. I remember reading this book when I was much younger and busting a gut laughing- part of why I picked it up again was chasing that dragon. I suppose it's not much of a surprise that it wasn't as funny to me the second time around, both because I'd read it before and was actively studying how it was written. Only chuckled a few times while reading it, and I think I'll hold off on re-reading the others he's written.

Don't think I'd read this again, save for an acute nostalgia attack. Would recommend as a pleasant read to others who appreciate short stories and outdoorsy humor.

[Gene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I was reading this book for over a month, the reason is that I read another longer book when only partway through this one; it was not that this book was a tough slog. In fact, I rushed through this one because it was so entertaining. The self-deprecating humor of the narrator and the clever way the tales are told made me want to start another chapter as soon as I finished the latest one. I think my outdoor experiences in the mountains of Taiwan over the last few years gave me a greater appreciation for the incidents he relates in his hiking, hunting, and fishing. Though each chapter is its own story, there is some interconnection between stories with characters showing up repeatedly and having their own traits that become familiar to the reader. If you enjoy the challenges of the great outdoors and sometimes coming up short when head-to-head with nature, you'll enjoy this book.

[Alyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a camper and backpacker I found this book to be extremely amusing. I love the author's wit and take on his experiences with these activities (and more). As I read I thought how much my dad would get a kick out of the book so I surprised him with a copy. He loved it! The author wrote for years for FIELD & STREAM magazine and this is a compilation of some of his articles. I highly recommend it for a good laugh. I think anyone can appreciate the book but for those who love the great outdoors it adds just a bit more humor. Each chapter is a story in itself. The books reminds me a little bit of James Herriott's books but I could relate a bit more to this book. The chapters aren't too long and it was a joy to read.

Popsugar Challenge #38 A book with an ugly cover

[xtine]

One of the funniest books I've ever read and it often had me laughing out loud. A must if you like outdoorsy things like hiking, camping, fishing, etc. From the first page: "Young people just now starting out in camping probably have no idea that it wasn’t but a couple of decades ago that people went camping expecting to be miserable. Half the fun of camping in those days was looking forward to getting back home. When you did get back home you prolonged the enjoyment of your trip by telling all your friends how miserable you had been. The more you talked about the miseries of life in the woods, the more you wanted to get back out there and start suffering again. Camping was a fine and pleasant misery."