Reviews for Ibid: A Life
Review - Ibid: A Life
Why I read the book: I read his Ella Minnow Pea and thought it was clever.
What the book was about: The life of three-legged businessman Jonathan Blashette. The biography itself was lost in a bathtub accident and all that remained to be published was the footnotes.
Jonathan joined the circus early in life, but soon left to become a respected businessman specializing in men’s deodorant. He never married, due to a series of Boston-related mishaps, but found peace as a humanitarian. Along the way, he met many famous people including Lou Gehrig (Jonathan helped him write the final draft of his speech), Aimee Temple McPherson and Grandma Moses.
What I liked about the book: It was frequently amusing, occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, clever and well-written.
What I didn’t like about the book: It occasionally dips into off-color humor, but not graphically.
The most interesting quote: Maybe not the most interesting, but typical of the humor:
Her father sold Divine Bain sea sponges throughout a territory that included eastern Arkansas, northern Mississippi, and western Tennessee as well as, curiously, Atlantic City, New Jersey, where, it was said, he had a mistress named Sheila who either (sources disagree) ate lye and died, or ate dye and lied about it, bragging that blue tongues ran in her family.
Recommendation: I gave it a 7. Because it consisted mostly of one-liners instead of a coherent plot, it seemed to drag after a while. But parts of it were very funny.
Further Comments: Here’s my review of Ella Minnow Pea (2001)
Nollop is named for its most famous citizen who created the sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” As letters fall off Nollop’s statue, the council bans their use. Punishment for using outlawed letters is banishment. With almost nobody left, Ella finds a sentence in her Dad’s last letter — but I don’t want to give the ending away.
As the book progresses, the author stops using the outlawed letters. I gave it an 8.
What the book was about: The life of three-legged businessman Jonathan Blashette. The biography itself was lost in a bathtub accident and all that remained to be published was the footnotes.
Jonathan joined the circus early in life, but soon left to become a respected businessman specializing in men’s deodorant. He never married, due to a series of Boston-related mishaps, but found peace as a humanitarian. Along the way, he met many famous people including Lou Gehrig (Jonathan helped him write the final draft of his speech), Aimee Temple McPherson and Grandma Moses.
What I liked about the book: It was frequently amusing, occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, clever and well-written.
What I didn’t like about the book: It occasionally dips into off-color humor, but not graphically.
The most interesting quote: Maybe not the most interesting, but typical of the humor:
Her father sold Divine Bain sea sponges throughout a territory that included eastern Arkansas, northern Mississippi, and western Tennessee as well as, curiously, Atlantic City, New Jersey, where, it was said, he had a mistress named Sheila who either (sources disagree) ate lye and died, or ate dye and lied about it, bragging that blue tongues ran in her family.
Recommendation: I gave it a 7. Because it consisted mostly of one-liners instead of a coherent plot, it seemed to drag after a while. But parts of it were very funny.
Further Comments: Here’s my review of Ella Minnow Pea (2001)
Nollop is named for its most famous citizen who created the sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” As letters fall off Nollop’s statue, the council bans their use. Punishment for using outlawed letters is banishment. With almost nobody left, Ella finds a sentence in her Dad’s last letter — but I don’t want to give the ending away.
As the book progresses, the author stops using the outlawed letters. I gave it an 8.
Reviewed by Roger on 2006-07-25 15:10:45