A review by saroz162
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley

3.0

This is a cheap and cheerful little tale about the beauty of reading and the personal agency that can come from literacy. As such, it can't help but feel a little didactic sometimes - in fact, in its strongest moments, Morley might as well be delivering a monologue about the power of books. The funny thing is how that basically runs counter to Morley's own assertion that the very best books have a lot of heart and very little "forehead"; this story is certainly very sweet, but it seems to have an intellectual, teachy motivation behind it that's a little hard to ignore. Worse, it makes it hard to make an emotional connection with the book. There are aspects of "Parnassus" - the unconventional buddy/romance pairing, the travelogue, the encounters with ordinary people on the road - that are reminiscent of movies 20 years later (most obviously, It Happened One Night); a 1930s comedy, however, even at its most screwball, would generally be more endearing. Parnassus on Wheels is a pleasant little read, but it doesn't really stick with you.