Specify Books During The Portable Dorothy Parker
| Original Title: | The Viking Portable Library: Dorothy Parker |
| ISBN: | 0140150749 (ISBN13: 9780140150742) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Dorothy Parker
Paperback | Pages: 610 pages Rating: 4.34 | 11111 Users | 537 Reviews
Relation Concering Books The Portable Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker, renowned wit, critic, poet and short-story writer. Take note of that order.Picasso once said of Cézanne that he was 'the father of us all'. Well, in similar terms, Dorothy Parker is my biological mother. Which makes me Picasso I guess, which I'll take.
Parker's book reviews are the finest of the form. She was truly the queen of mean. As 'The Constant Reader' she praised and demolished the latest novels with such wit and grace that oftentimes the review was better than the work is discussed. She often filled her reviews with stories of her personal life or stray observations on society. Despite dying in 1967, her vicious tongue has never been equalled. I view Dorothy Parker as my greatest influence. As many people light candles in front of the Sacred Heart, I follow a similar regime with Parker, muttering incantations in front of her image and never gazing too long into her eyes.
Thus The Portable Dorothy Parker is a volume which I believed would be a fitting replacement for the Holy Book. Which it somewhat is. In that it only gets really good near the end and you spend most of your time skipping over the bad bits.
You see The Portable Dorothy Parker would be better titled The Short Stories of Dorothy Parker, interspersed by her Poetry with a paltry sampling of her Criticism, Reviews, Letters and Interviews.
I am first to admit that I am not a huge fan of Parker's short stories. Don't get me wrong, she had many wonderful stories: Big Blonde, Arrangement in Black and White, The Waltz, From the Diary of a New York Lady and The Game are some shining examples. But almost five-hundred pages of this six-hundred page volume are dedicated to her stories, many of which are just not good. There's a reason why we don't immediately think 'short story writer' when we hear Parker's name.
I feel the term 'hit and miss' was coined specifically for her short fiction. Those that hit are blinding critiques of early-20th century society, full of one-liners and characters which are equally as devastating. The misses are unreadable. Nothing much being written about nothing much. Therefore at time this volume is an absolute pain to get through, whilst at other times you want to rip each page out and frame them along a staircase.
Most of my praise for this volume comes from the measly hundred pages dedicated to her non-fiction. This is where Parker Comes Alive! Such glittering meanness from the mouth of the poison Madonna. It depresses me so much. I'll never be her. The best I can do is plagiarise, which has served me quite well for many years. Sometime during my twenties I'll probably get a Dorothy Parker quote tattooed onto my skin, right next to my stigmata.
Overall The Portable Dorothy Parker is a somewhat skewed collection of her finest writings. There is absolute gold in here, but one must sift through the mud first. Perhaps it is one for the fans.
Be Specific About Containing Books The Portable Dorothy Parker
| Title | : | The Portable Dorothy Parker |
| Author | : | Dorothy Parker |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Revised and Enlarged Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 610 pages |
| Published | : | December 9th 1976 by Penguin Books (first published May 1944) |
| Categories | : | Poetry. Short Stories. Fiction. Classics. Humor. Writing. Essays |
Rating Containing Books The Portable Dorothy Parker
Ratings: 4.34 From 11111 Users | 537 ReviewsCrit Containing Books The Portable Dorothy Parker
It's not that portable, but Dorothy Parker's a bracing companion for travel, and well worth the bother of lugging her around. I love how mean she was, and she was a fabulous letter-writer: funny, frank and gossipy. Her poetry and short stories do get a bit samey when read all at one go -- themes recur -- but she's such an entertaining writer that it doesn't much matter.It pleases me that she took up the mantle when P. G. Wodehouse stopped reviewing drama for -- hm, some magazine or the other.I think I'll finally move this over to the "read" shelf. I didn't read every single page of this book. I love Dorothy Parker and think she is witty and clever. But reading every single thing she ever wrote was a bit wearing and started to feel repetitive and her humor even started to seem a bit mean.
I have a major literary crush on Parker. I'm a sucker for a funny line, and Parker had a lot of those.
Dorothy Parker kicks so much ass that I want to re-incarnate as a man, go back in time, and sleep with her. Just so I can say I did. Dorothy Parker is one of the wittiest people that lived, and her poetry and stories are so simple that any half-wit could understand it (heehee) and appreciate her genius. Dorothy rocks!
This portable library of short stories, poems and reviews by the author, poet and critic Dorothy Parker was loaned by a friend who attached the following advice: "Parker might be best digested one bite at a time." Over the past two months, I've been doing that, eating lunch and digesting Parker's wit twenty pages at a time.My first impression, which I was proud of myself for making at the time, was that these pieces read like something that would appear in the New Yorker. I soon discovered that
today the Algonquin Hotel bar offers for the ultimate fan the "Mrs. Parker" = a $15 cosmopolitan. If you're as nerdy as me, you'll bring the book with you to read while you nurse the shit out of a week's food money.
I can best describe this book as a brick; in physical size and in emotional weight. I went into it expecting simple stories laced with a sarcastic sense of humor that would rival my own. What I ended up with at times was overwhelming waves of disgust that dripped with feelings of melancholy towards the human condition. Depth and insight that cut to the bone with sarcasm and humor as a shot of vodka to numb the spirit; what a breathtaking combo.After reading a sampling of her stories, reviews and
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