A treasure trove of early 20th-century political humor and social commentary still relevant today.
A book offers a collection of an American humorist’s vivid writings.
Van Meter (Tippecanoe and Tyler Too, 2008, etc.) focuses on the period after Finley Peter Dunne relocated from Chicago to New York City in 1900. Dunne is most famous for creating Martin Dooley—a wisecracking, middle-aged bar owner whose thoughts on a wide array of topics appeared in a transliterated Irish brogue throughout the nation via newspapers and magazines. Logically, Van Meter emphasizes the Dooley pieces in his overall selection of essays. In fact, according to the author, only three of the Dooley texts included in this collection have appeared in book form previously, and he accurately characterizes the bar owner’s voice in the preface: “His gruff concern, willing kindness, and skeptical thoughtfulness are always present alongside a clear eye for hypocrisy and unfairness.” Commenting on the lack of civil discourse during the 1912 presidential campaign, Dooley remarks, “Ivrybody callin’ each other liars an’ crooks not like pollytickal inimies, d’ye mind, but like old frinds that has been up late dhrinkin’ together.” Sound familiar? Wading through this dialect can be immensely challenging but is largely worth the effort. Van Meter believes that the non-Dooley writings lack a similar sense of playfulness, but many readers will probably welcome the break. Likewise, modern audiences should appreciate the author’s decision to boldface the names of the era’s prominent political figures and provide a supremely helpful glossary of names at the end of the text. Mr. Worldly Wiseman, another wonderful character, emerges from these pages, a pompous blowhard whom Van Meter aptly compares to the archconservative personage inhabited for many years by Stephen Colbert. “Wisey” criticizes environmental conservation efforts and insists that a businessman would make an ideal president. Beyond the expanded Dooley repertoire, this bloviating autocrat is a real discovery. Furthermore, enthusiasts of Teddy Roosevelt (“Tiddy Rosenfelt,” in Dooley’s words) should not miss this volume, as Dunne managed to maintain a friendship with him while simultaneously poking fun. Readers should enjoy the contemporaneous accounts of notable events (the death of Mark Twain, the women’s suffrage movement, the sinking of the Titanic) as well as more perennial topics (professional baseball, collegiate football, and women’s fashion). Van Meter may inspire skepticism with his use of the superlative in the book’s subtitle, but he certainly mounts a credible case.
A treasure trove of early 20th-century political humor and social commentary still relevant today.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5188-2712-9
Page Count: 436
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
