Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker
by Dorothy Parker
List Price:
Our Price: $3.29
You Save: $13.71 (81%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.08 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Dorothy ParkerCompiler: Stuart Y. Silverstein
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-10-20
ISBN: 143914317X
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Scribner
Book Reviews of Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker
Book Review: Ironically Titled: Not Much Fun
Summary: 3 Stars
The book consists of a 73-page Introduction (with 120 footnotes) and 169 pages of poetry containing approximately 129 "lost" poems, each one usually not more than a page or two long. The footnotes are funny because, largely, they contain they situational wisecracks of Dorothy Parker which liven up the generally lackluster recounting of the major events of Dorothy Parker's life.
The wisecracks in the Introduction bring such chuckles of delight, they instantly raise the evaluation of the whole book -- momentarily, like a seductive tease. Easily, Parker's wisecracks could have been substituted for the Introduction if laughter was the primary purpose of the book.
The remarkable thing about the Introduction that is worth noting is Stuart Y. Silverstein's assertion that Dorothy Parker was a Stalinist and that she signed Stalin's petition to put millions of his own people to death. Unmistakably, and (for me) very disappointingly, Dorothy Parker, as the Introduction makes clear, was "not a personal friend of the multitudes." She was a "grand dame" all right, but in the meanest and most anti-human sense. (If you also just think of the various genocidal movements going on through various nefarious charitable organizations or non-governmental organizations today in the name of "world governance" (i.e., World Communism), through WHO or Social Services in the UK just to name two, then Dorothy Parker's signature on Stalin's petition in the Thirties (again, for the eradication of the multitudes) makes reading her poems and wisecrackings seem a pleasureless, wrongheaded straining for depth and gratification that is not much fun, not much fun at all, at all.)
The poems in this collection are inaptly name as "lost." They were not ever lost, only forgotten, at least for the most part. They do bring a certain pleasure and do provide a few guffaws. At least, this is true for the first third of them. The middle portion of the collection, however, is actually dull and repetitive, and the not-much-fun reading of them seems endless and unrelieved until the last third of the collection where the reader discovers "The Hate Verses." These late, contrarian poems do return lift and light to the reader's soul-seeking pleasures and unlock a few more unexpected giggles.
The Introduction quotes a Wyatt Cooper saying "If you didn't know Dorothy Parker, whatever you think she was like, she wasn't. Even if you did know her, whatever you thought she was like, she probably wasn't." What Mr. Cooper made of Dorothy Parker as a human being, I think can equally be made of the poems found in this collection. While the compiler, Mr. Silverstein, thinks these poems are eclectic, breezy, and unself-conscious, the carefully cultivated image and personality Dorothy Parker crafted for herself through her books of poetry (and through careful editing) is nowhere to be found, is totally abandoned or "lost" such that, for me, these poems seem written either by a completely different person or by an adolescent version of that "modern woman" Dorothy Parker fans have already come to know and love. Having read now all the poems in this collection, I think I (still) prefer the "aesthetic profile Dorothy Parker had hoped to project" and succeeded in projecting - that is, succeeded well before encountering this book. Having learned how bad some of the poems in this collection are while also discovering what a life-hating Communist she turned out to be, I find the book ironically titled. Reading it was, aptly, not much fun.
Summary of Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker
During the early years of her career, while struggling to "keep body and soul apart" (as she ruefully put it later), Dorothy Parker wrote more than three hundred poems and verses for a variety of popular magazines and newspapers. Between 1926 and 1933 she collected most of these pieces in three volumes of poetry: Enough Rope, Sunset Gun, and Death and Taxes. The remaining poems and verses from America's most renowned cynic make up this volume. Eclectic and exuberant, these 122 once-forgotten gems display Parker's distinctive wit, irony, and precision, as she dissects early-twentieth-century American urban life and gleefully skewers a rich array of targets that range from personal foible to popular culture. With an authoritative, immensely entertaining, and critically acclaimed introduction by Stuart Y. Silverstein, Not Much Fun is an essential addition to the Dorothy Parker library and a welcome gift to her many admirers and devoted fans.A succinct, yet enlightening introduction and footnotes with quintessential Dorothy Parker anecdotes and quotes serve as brilliant foundation for this collection of "lost" poems. In fact, they are pieces that Parker discarded as not fit for publication, and Parker enthusiasts will notice that many foreshadow more-polished later versions. Though Parker once described her verse as "horribly outdated--anything once fashionable is dreadful now," it's clear that even her "unfit" works are far from dreadful.
Biographies & Memoirs Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Biographies & Memoirs Books
I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Storyby Hank Aaron, Lonnie Wheeler
Harpercollins; Published: 1991-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.93
Price in other shops:
Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Againby Drew Pinsky
William Morrow; Published: 2003-08-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.43
Price in other shops:
The Last Season (P.S.)by Eric Blehm
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.54
Price in other shops:
The Last Seasonby Eric Blehm
Harper; Published: 2006-04-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Truck: A Love Story (P.S.)by Michael Perry
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-07-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.04
Price in other shops:
My Grandfather's Son: A Memoirby Clarence Thomas
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritansby Eve LaPlante
HarperOne; Published: 2004-03-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.99
Price in other shops:
100 Missions North/ a Fighter Pilot's Story of the Vietnam Warby Kenneth H. Bell
Brassey's Inc; Published: 1993-04; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Macmillan Profiles: Villains & Outlawsby Et Al
MacMillan Reference Books; Published: 1998-10-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.93
Price in other shops:
Hawk : Occupation Skateboarderby Tony; Mortimer, Sean Hawk
Regan Books; Published: 2000; Hardcover; Book
Similar Books and other products
Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin: Writers Running Wild in the Twentiesby Marion Meade
Mariner Books; Published: 2005-06-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.98
Price in other shops:
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious CircleImage Entertainment; Release date: 2006-09-05; DVD
Best price: $9.02
Price in other shops:
Dorothy Parker: In Her Own Wordsby Dorothy Parker
Taylor Trade Publishing; Published: 2004-03-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.94
Price in other shops:
Algonquin Witby ROBERT E DRENNAN, Robert E. Drennan
Citadel; Published: 1987-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.87
Price in other shops:
A Journey into Dorothy Parker's New York (ArtPlace series)by Kevin C. Fitzpatrick
Roaring Forties Press; Published: 2005-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops:
Complete Storiesby Dorothy Parker
Penguin Classics; Published: 2002-12-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.95
Price in other shops:
Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?by Marion Meade
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1989-03-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops:
The Poetry and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker (Modern Library)by Dorothy Parker
Modern Library; Published: 1994-08-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $55.99
The Portable Dorothy Parker (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)by Dorothy Parker
Penguin Classics; Published: 2006-03-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.37
Price in other shops:
Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)by Dorothy Parker
Penguin Classics; Published: 2010-04-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.22
Price in other shops: