Witty, wise and full of insights.
An entertaining collection of original aphorisms, irreverent quips and offbeat wordplay by new author Sykes.
Borrowing the wit and wisdom of Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain and the offbeat perspective of Jack Handey, Sykes provides hundreds of captivating, thought-provoking and occasionally puzzling reflections about everyday life. The book is organized into 14 chapters, some with biting titles (“Lawjerks & Lie-yers,” “Age & Dotage”), others amusing (“Love, Marriage & Other Reconcilable Differences”), and some reflecting a more jabberwockylike sense of humor (“Oddvice,” “Perplexplanations” and “Qwhystions”). Sykes perspicaciously studies the everyday as economically expressed in pithy sayings, epigrams and free-verse poetry. Some entries are wise and quotable: “Love your harness, and your load will pull you.” Others are silly: “If your enemies say you’re too big for your britches, the best thing to do is look good in tight pants.” However, the book is most engaging when Sykes uses that popular comedic construct: the paraprosdokian, a rhetorical device in which the latter part of a reflection is so unexpected that it causes the reader to reframe the first part. For example, Sykes writes: “The human capacity for delusion is amazing. Some New Yorkers, for example, actually believe they’re outdoors when they’re in Central Park.” Most of Sykes’ musings would serve as valuable fodder at a lively dinner party of sharp-witted wags, philosophers and comics. However, the intended ironies sometimes get lost in tangled declarations: “If you’re planning to bite the hand that feeds you…plan to eat the hand too, since hunger’s going to come back in either case long before dinner ever does.” Elsewhere, Sykes occasionally misses the mark when concocting new words—“reMorse Code,” “flaccid flagpoles,” “gymnauseum”—that don’t quite live up to Stephen Colbert’s “truthiness.” These few miscues detract from an otherwise exceptionally entertaining book.
Witty, wise and full of insights.Pub Date: April 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1492340379
Page Count: 304
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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