A veteran humorist offers wry and shticky counsel on how to survive the ``rough patch'' of incipient male aging. Friedman (The Current Climate, 1989, etc.) has been plumbing urban neuroses for a while; here, he alternates chuckle-worthy insights with annoying absurdity. He opens with an amusing checklist for the SOG (e.g., ``You make it through the night without a trip to the bathroom and consider it a cause for celebration''), then lowers his aim by positing how memory loss might lead to an inadvertent phone conversation with Julia Roberts. On sex, he's a hoot: Using baseball terms, he proposes that the SOG should recognize the loss of his ``high hard one'' and instead ``develop a slider.'' He moves on to offer advice about diet (``listen carefully to your body''), appearance (``Nobody admires a Slightly Older Guy who looks like Howard Hughes''), and fitness (treadmills are ``an excellent way to get through Proust''). Regarding ex-wives, he is emphatic: ``The key to amiable coexistence...is to stay out of her life—and hope she stays out of yours.'' And on some bedrock issues, he's downright wise: Avoid feeling personal affronts at a contemporary's success, he warns. He's quite tender toward the concept of the Slightly Older Wife, who, he observes, ``has invested heavily in you.'' Be a good sport about your kids, he says, even if you suspect the child may not be yours. Friedman further offers thoughts on saving money (check Modern Maturity—in private, of course—for travel savings), possible later-life careers (limo driver, memoirist), even a run for office (oppose coddling criminals and TV violence). Finally, he counsels that SOGs tie up loose ends, decide what they want out of life, and proceed—with no whining. Slight, but for Friedman's target demographic, reliably fun. (illustrations)
Pub Date: June 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-684-80206-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1995
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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