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SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE EMBARRASSING CASES
If Sherlock Holmes had been Groucho Marx. The most bizarre, ridiculous, failed cases of the best detective of all time, recorded in writing by Dr. Watson and recently found among his great-grandson's origami collection. The silliest humor to caricature the smartest detective.
52 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 5, 2019
4 people are currently reading
390 people want to read
About the author
Xavier Pérez-Pons
48 books16 followersXavier Perez-Pons is the author of an academic essay in which he traces the theory of soulmates in the course of history: “Love Letters from a Widower: the Mystery of Soul Mates in Light of Ancient Wisdom". But he has made a living writing witticisms for television. Somehow he has managed to alternate both hobbies, Philosophy and Humor, without getting himself into a hopeless muddle.
There is nothing mysterious in his fondness of humor (absurd humor, to be precise). Simply, since he was a child he has that skill (like someone who is good at playing basketball, let's say). And, while studying Law at the University, he won a tender called by a television channel to write a situation comedy. That was the beginning of his career as a TV screenwriter specialized in witticism and silly humor.
As for his fondness of Philosophy (and specifically, of the Soulmates’ theory), it does have a mysterious starting point. He narrates it this way:
“I was thirteen years old. My sister two years younger than I used to bring home some of her classmates to do homework together. That afternoon, my mother had been urgently required by a neighbor, so she left me in charge of ironing the clothes she was forced to interrupt. Soon my sister arrived accompanied as always by a friend. I informed her out loud that our mother had left, she acknowledged receipt of the notice and went to her room.
But her friend did not follow her: intrigued by that masculine voice, she followed its trail until she found me in the room where I was ironing shirts. Since I was on my back and focused on my task, I did not notice her presence until she greeted me with a "hello". I turned a little startled and saw her standing there, watching me. I barely had time to react because my sister immediately came to the rescue of her friend.
In general, I did not like my sister's friends, but this one was different. Not only did I like her, but I felt as if a spring had jumped in my memory. In a word: I felt a surprising familiarity towards her, as if I had found a loved one after a long time. I did not hide it from my family: during dinner, I commented that I really liked my sister's friend, which generated joking reactions like "Go, finally you like some of her friends!", "Miracle!".
Here the story is interrupted to retake it ten years later.
In all that time, I had not seen Blanca (that's her name) or known about her. I worked at that time as a scriptwriter on Televisión Española.
One evening, I came back home by bus when I saw her in the distance through the window. My heart skipped a beat because I recognized it immediately. But I recognized her not as the girl who had briefly passed through my family's home ten years before, but just as I recognized her that afternoon: as someone very dear, for whom I felt a strange familiarity and confidence. It was a little later that I realized that I had experienced that same feeling ten years ago and that she was the same girl. (This experience sparked my interest in the theory of Soul Mates, and when I realized that there was no book that thoroughly traced the origins of this theory, I decided to write that book myself.) It was the hour people left work, the traffic was intense and the bus moved slowly, so I had time to observe her. She had just left the Conciliar Seminary, where the future priests were preparing, and she was chatting animatedly with a friend. I do not know if it was the expression of surprise on my face what made her stop suddenly and turn to stare at me, also with the same expression of surprise.
The next day, I asked my sister about her old friend and I found out she was preparing to become a cloistered nun and that this had been her vocation since she was a child...
But there is not enough space here! So I refer you to this other site: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/p...
There is nothing mysterious in his fondness of humor (absurd humor, to be precise). Simply, since he was a child he has that skill (like someone who is good at playing basketball, let's say). And, while studying Law at the University, he won a tender called by a television channel to write a situation comedy. That was the beginning of his career as a TV screenwriter specialized in witticism and silly humor.
As for his fondness of Philosophy (and specifically, of the Soulmates’ theory), it does have a mysterious starting point. He narrates it this way:
“I was thirteen years old. My sister two years younger than I used to bring home some of her classmates to do homework together. That afternoon, my mother had been urgently required by a neighbor, so she left me in charge of ironing the clothes she was forced to interrupt. Soon my sister arrived accompanied as always by a friend. I informed her out loud that our mother had left, she acknowledged receipt of the notice and went to her room.
But her friend did not follow her: intrigued by that masculine voice, she followed its trail until she found me in the room where I was ironing shirts. Since I was on my back and focused on my task, I did not notice her presence until she greeted me with a "hello". I turned a little startled and saw her standing there, watching me. I barely had time to react because my sister immediately came to the rescue of her friend.
In general, I did not like my sister's friends, but this one was different. Not only did I like her, but I felt as if a spring had jumped in my memory. In a word: I felt a surprising familiarity towards her, as if I had found a loved one after a long time. I did not hide it from my family: during dinner, I commented that I really liked my sister's friend, which generated joking reactions like "Go, finally you like some of her friends!", "Miracle!".
Here the story is interrupted to retake it ten years later.
In all that time, I had not seen Blanca (that's her name) or known about her. I worked at that time as a scriptwriter on Televisión Española.
One evening, I came back home by bus when I saw her in the distance through the window. My heart skipped a beat because I recognized it immediately. But I recognized her not as the girl who had briefly passed through my family's home ten years before, but just as I recognized her that afternoon: as someone very dear, for whom I felt a strange familiarity and confidence. It was a little later that I realized that I had experienced that same feeling ten years ago and that she was the same girl. (This experience sparked my interest in the theory of Soul Mates, and when I realized that there was no book that thoroughly traced the origins of this theory, I decided to write that book myself.) It was the hour people left work, the traffic was intense and the bus moved slowly, so I had time to observe her. She had just left the Conciliar Seminary, where the future priests were preparing, and she was chatting animatedly with a friend. I do not know if it was the expression of surprise on my face what made her stop suddenly and turn to stare at me, also with the same expression of surprise.
The next day, I asked my sister about her old friend and I found out she was preparing to become a cloistered nun and that this had been her vocation since she was a child...
But there is not enough space here! So I refer you to this other site: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/p...
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 17, 2020
Welcome to Whimsical Wednesday, my dear Book Dragons. Tonight I have no gem, alas, not even a mineral. This thing that was presented to me does not even make a good tale. It actually made my scales shudder when I deigned to force meself to finish it. This is Xavier Perez-Pons’ Sherlock Holmes “The Embarrassing Cases”.
The premise of the book is that Dr. Watson must get Holmes busy with a case otherwise he has to sit and listen to Holmes brain “gurgle”. I love a good satire as much as the next person and was hoping this would be one, unfortunately this was not the case. I had not gone three sentences when the grammar became unreadable. I went over one sentence four times to make sense of it. The first page had three more sentences like this. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and blame the translator but could not find where this might have been the case or that I had been given an advance reader’s copy that had not completed editing yet. It does happen and I do tend to overlook certain things when I am told that in advance. Why? Because in the heat of passion ( and furiously writing down an idea before One loses it is passionate work indeed) we are apt to make mistakes. So by then end of the first few pages Mr. Pons was down from five Flames to three. I soldiered on.
These are not some side characters in a book no one has heard of. These are no less than SHERLOCK HOLMES and DR. JOHN WATSON. If One is going to take on the task of using their characters, whether for satire or in all seriousness, get them right. I did not recognize the insane Holmes in the first few sentences. Even Robert Downey, Jr.’s eye solution drinking Holmes was lucid and recognizable. There are wonderful examples of writers taking over famous author’s famous characters and doing them justice. Two examples come to mind. This first is Sophie Hannah writing as Agatha Christie and creating Hercule Poirot stories that I love! I recognize this detective from his mustaches and egg-shaped head all the way to his “bon!” and “leetle grey cells”. Or Gregory MaGuire’s “Wicked” . This is satire, but I still knew Miss Gulch was under there, I just knew it. Gregory never let us forget that there was a bicycle flying around out there somewhere. Now we are down from three Flames to one. And so this is something I have never done before in a review. I have given a one. It pains me.
The one is for the cover. The cover was lovely. I really wish the book had been as good as the drawing on the front. That cover gave me hope. I was looking forward to some great satire as it reminded me of those wonderful caricature drawings I saw in magazines like the New Yorker, when I was a nestling. Men like Al Hirschfeld, Mort Drucker and Ralph Steadman could put a definite spin on a famous face. I do hope Mr. Pons re-thinks this book and reworks it. He had a good premise. He had a great cover. He had a great title. Now if he can just get that story!
Until later this evening, I remain, your humble Book Dragon, Drakon T. Longwitten
The premise of the book is that Dr. Watson must get Holmes busy with a case otherwise he has to sit and listen to Holmes brain “gurgle”. I love a good satire as much as the next person and was hoping this would be one, unfortunately this was not the case. I had not gone three sentences when the grammar became unreadable. I went over one sentence four times to make sense of it. The first page had three more sentences like this. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and blame the translator but could not find where this might have been the case or that I had been given an advance reader’s copy that had not completed editing yet. It does happen and I do tend to overlook certain things when I am told that in advance. Why? Because in the heat of passion ( and furiously writing down an idea before One loses it is passionate work indeed) we are apt to make mistakes. So by then end of the first few pages Mr. Pons was down from five Flames to three. I soldiered on.
These are not some side characters in a book no one has heard of. These are no less than SHERLOCK HOLMES and DR. JOHN WATSON. If One is going to take on the task of using their characters, whether for satire or in all seriousness, get them right. I did not recognize the insane Holmes in the first few sentences. Even Robert Downey, Jr.’s eye solution drinking Holmes was lucid and recognizable. There are wonderful examples of writers taking over famous author’s famous characters and doing them justice. Two examples come to mind. This first is Sophie Hannah writing as Agatha Christie and creating Hercule Poirot stories that I love! I recognize this detective from his mustaches and egg-shaped head all the way to his “bon!” and “leetle grey cells”. Or Gregory MaGuire’s “Wicked” . This is satire, but I still knew Miss Gulch was under there, I just knew it. Gregory never let us forget that there was a bicycle flying around out there somewhere. Now we are down from three Flames to one. And so this is something I have never done before in a review. I have given a one. It pains me.
The one is for the cover. The cover was lovely. I really wish the book had been as good as the drawing on the front. That cover gave me hope. I was looking forward to some great satire as it reminded me of those wonderful caricature drawings I saw in magazines like the New Yorker, when I was a nestling. Men like Al Hirschfeld, Mort Drucker and Ralph Steadman could put a definite spin on a famous face. I do hope Mr. Pons re-thinks this book and reworks it. He had a good premise. He had a great cover. He had a great title. Now if he can just get that story!
Until later this evening, I remain, your humble Book Dragon, Drakon T. Longwitten
August 20, 2020
I won this book as a Goodreads Giveaway.
I made it through less than half of the book before I had to mark it as a DNF. I just couldn't finish. They took two beloved characters and ruined them with slapstick comedy.
I made it through less than half of the book before I had to mark it as a DNF. I just couldn't finish. They took two beloved characters and ruined them with slapstick comedy.
November 24, 2019
This book is comprised of many very short stories regarding the more eccentric side of Sherlock Holmes. The stories are told from Watson's perspective. I have watched the TV series of Sherlock Holmes with Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes. Having watched the show, I could easily picture Holmes going off on his wild tangents which do not make any sense to the more grounded person in this book.
If you are looking for a nonsensical type book with slap stick humor, this is the book for you!
If you are looking for a nonsensical type book with slap stick humor, this is the book for you!
April 29, 2020
I'm not sure if this book was meant to be slapstick or what, but it's unfortunately very poorly written. It is choppy, and makes no sense. Characters suddenly attack each other, there are no storylines to speak of, and the action is silly. I don't think it was originally written in English, which probably doesn't help, so maybe the translation is part of the problem? At any rate, reading about two of these "stories" was enough to turn me off.
November 19, 2019
I really thought I would enjoy this book but it just wasn't what I thought it would be. It was really silly and so not Sherlock Holmes. I couldn't even get through the first one. I am so sorry about this.
November 17, 2019
Sorry to state that this was a bit too silly for me.
My thanks to goodreads and the book's giveaway sponsors for the opportunity to obtain a copy of this book.
My thanks to goodreads and the book's giveaway sponsors for the opportunity to obtain a copy of this book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews