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jclare2's review
3.0
This book is a collection of short essays/stories from Bemelmans that were not written to be sequential, connected, or cumulative. This makes for perfect reading for someone like me who has been finding it difficult to nail down time to focus on a book for more than 10 minutes at a time or more than two days in a row. I could pick it up, sample a light story, fall asleep, and not feel badly if I didn't return to the book for a week and a half.
Beyond that, the book was good fun. I only knew Bemelmans from the Madeline books, so this was a new perspective. In the way he presents each story from his life, you get a sense (whether correct or not) that he floated through life as the consummate go-with-the-flow observer. Craziness surrounds him and is his life, yet he observes (a little dispassionately), rarely judges, and goes with whatever it is happening, noting the details of the players in the crazy. But, come to think of it, I think my favorite stories though were those where he was less dispassionate and more personally involved. The story of he and his daughter and the poodle on the trans-Atlantic ship was the best for me. But my favorite quote was from a different story:
Beyond that, the book was good fun. I only knew Bemelmans from the Madeline books, so this was a new perspective. In the way he presents each story from his life, you get a sense (whether correct or not) that he floated through life as the consummate go-with-the-flow observer. Craziness surrounds him and is his life, yet he observes (a little dispassionately), rarely judges, and goes with whatever it is happening, noting the details of the players in the crazy. But, come to think of it, I think my favorite stories though were those where he was less dispassionate and more personally involved. The story of he and his daughter and the poodle on the trans-Atlantic ship was the best for me. But my favorite quote was from a different story:
"I told him he could start in right away. He could pack my trunk and take it to the ship; and as soon as he got to New York, there were several people I would like to have disemboweled, but nicely, and I would give him a list every Monday."
thecolorsofboredom's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual harassment
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