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Nothing matters, and other stories
A very good hardcover copy with bright gilt spine and front cover lettering. Light smudging; bit of bumping to corners and spine ends. Back hinge cracking lightly, but otherwise tight binding. Clean, unmarked pages. NOT ex-library. 250pg. Shipped Under 1 kilogram. Short Stories; Inventory 019513.
249 pages, Unknown Binding
Published January 1, 1970
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 10, 2025
I was at a university for random reasons, wandering the stacks, looking at book titles. "Nothing Matters" jumped out at me and made me laugh. I grabbed it and started reading. And much to my surprise, it was interesting.
I had to put the book back on the shelf, but I found a copy online for a reasonable amount, and bought it.
I am 55 years old. And lately all entertainments seem boring. Books are boring, movies are boring, tv is boring. But a book from 1917 by a mostly forgotten author caught my interest. Every now and then he'd use a word I never heard of: kamptulicon, cachinnate. And I'd have to go look it up.
The stories are predictable. The last section is a rather dull speech. But the mood, the passion, the fun of it drew me in and kept me reading.
This baffles me. Many modern novels, I read 30 pages and I can't think of a reason to continue. What does Tree do that they don't?
He seems to be writing because he loves it. I feel like modern writers write because they want to be paid authors. Maybe that's it. I don't know.
Have we forgotten how to have fun? Have I?
The title is Nothing Matters but tree is far from a nihilist. The first story ends with the main character exclaiming, "Everything matters!"
Also, and this is mostly an aside... Did you know that "nothing" was Elizabethan slang for vagina? A penis is a thing, but a vagina is an absence of a thing, so nothing was a vagina.
Shakespeare knew this when he wrote Much Ado About Nothing. And his audience would have known it and been amused by the dirty joke. Why didn't anyone tell us this in school or university? I am upset.
Not to imply that Tree's book is about matters relating to vaginas.
It delights me that I am probably the only person on Goodreads who has read and reviewed this book. It's very satisfying in a stupid way.
I had to put the book back on the shelf, but I found a copy online for a reasonable amount, and bought it.
I am 55 years old. And lately all entertainments seem boring. Books are boring, movies are boring, tv is boring. But a book from 1917 by a mostly forgotten author caught my interest. Every now and then he'd use a word I never heard of: kamptulicon, cachinnate. And I'd have to go look it up.
The stories are predictable. The last section is a rather dull speech. But the mood, the passion, the fun of it drew me in and kept me reading.
This baffles me. Many modern novels, I read 30 pages and I can't think of a reason to continue. What does Tree do that they don't?
He seems to be writing because he loves it. I feel like modern writers write because they want to be paid authors. Maybe that's it. I don't know.
Have we forgotten how to have fun? Have I?
The title is Nothing Matters but tree is far from a nihilist. The first story ends with the main character exclaiming, "Everything matters!"
Also, and this is mostly an aside... Did you know that "nothing" was Elizabethan slang for vagina? A penis is a thing, but a vagina is an absence of a thing, so nothing was a vagina.
Shakespeare knew this when he wrote Much Ado About Nothing. And his audience would have known it and been amused by the dirty joke. Why didn't anyone tell us this in school or university? I am upset.
Not to imply that Tree's book is about matters relating to vaginas.
It delights me that I am probably the only person on Goodreads who has read and reviewed this book. It's very satisfying in a stupid way.
Displaying 1 of 1 review