Reminds me why I don't read the classics...

Sebastian Faulks is one of my favorite authors, but he should stick to writing his own fiction. Maybe I just don't get British humor, but this was the most esoteric, unfunny collection of short stories I have ever encountered. I wish there was a half-star rating.

Just suits my sense of humour. Love all the send-ups of literary greats. Hugely enjoyable.

Amusing bedside reading, its occasional cruelty makes it a guilty pleasure.

If you where asked to produce really poor humour for some cheap literary Christmas crackers then this would be a great source.

Short takeoffs on titles written by a different writer, e.g., Wodehouse writes Chandler. The few I got were funny. Must be very literary to get them, I think.

Many smiles of recognition
I found this in a remaindered bookshop a few weeks ago and picked it up immediately, thinking of the amazing parodies that Faulks used to produce (seemingly with little or no preparation) on Radio 4's "The Write Stuff". This is a handy collection of the best of them, along with a few that have been specially written for this compilation. As others have pointed out, there's some degree of unevenness here, though it'd be churlish to ask for everything to be up at the standard of Dan Brown at the cashpoint, Noel Coward's lyric about Big Brother, or James Bond's visit to the supermarket. I relished the former so greatly that I've practically learnt it off by heart; having been so moved by Brown's uncanny ability to use the wrong word almost all the time that I tried my own hand at a parody (in my review of "Angels And Demons" on this site), I felt I wanted to reach through the pages to shake hands with Faulks as he struck exactly the right note in this hilarious piece. This little book doesn't take long to read at all, but you'll be smiling for some time after putting it down.

Originally reviewed 1 July 2008

Um conjunto de contos (2-3 páginas cada) em jeito de sátira.

A ideia é engraçada e Faulks conhece os bem os autores cujo estilo imita (há sempre uma abordagem cómica: Dan Brown utiliza um multibanco; Thomas Hardy faz um relato de futebol; o primeiro dia de Martin Amis em Hogwarts), mas a fórmula resulta melhor nuns textos no que noutros, e o livro arrasta-se ao ponto de começarmos com um sorriso e acabarmos com um bocejo.

I picked this book up from the local library at a book-sale for $1.00. It was a perfect sized pocket book for what I wanted. Before putting the book to good use, I opted to give it a read-through. I flipped through a few of the stories, and found them utterly un-interesting. Which was lucky for me. The book was in great shape from having sat on a shelf being ignored.

I set to work quickly, using a scalpel to cut the pages out of the inside removing a perfectly Kobo sized section. I discarded the dust jacket faster than felt necessary and glued the remainder together. What resulted was one of the most useful books in my library. Perfectly sized, non-descript, brown with a little red devil on the cover. I love it.

I'm not sure how to rate this book. The content was shit, but I made quick work of that. Now it's the most opened book in my library.

Snippets of literature as imagined by various famous authors, all exaggerated to 150%.
this book contains Faulks first published attempts at imitating Ian Fleming and P.G. Wodehouse, both of whom he has since imitated in whole book-length oeuvres..

Laugh out loud funny, especially Dan brown at the ATM. I only knew enough about half of the authors to find them engaging and only enough about half of them to really enjoy them. Those that I did though I thoroughly enjoyed. Single page pastiches that pull no punches. An excellent toilet book!

Hit and miss, most no more than a gentle laugh.