Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories: And Other Disasters
by Jean Shepherd
List Price:
Our Price: $7.33
You Save: $7.62 (51%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Jean ShepherdEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1976-01-16
ISBN: 0385116322
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Broadway
Book Reviews of Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories: And Other Disasters
Book Review: Excellent. Absolutely excellent
Summary: 5 Stars
"Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters" is written by the man who co-wrote and narrates the classic movie A Christmas Story, Jean Shepherd (1921-1999). Shepherd's book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cashis the inspiration for that movie, although the infamous dogs in the kitchen scene comes from "Wanda Hickey".
If you love the movie A Christmas Story, you will absolutely enjoy this book. Set in Hammond, Indiana (he fictionalizes it as Hohman, Indiana) in the 1930s, Wanda Hickey is actually a set of 8 semi-fictional short stories loosely based on actual people and events in Shepherd's life. Hohman is described as being "nestled picturesquely between the looming steel mills and the verminously aromatic oil refineries and encircled by a colorful conglomerate of city dumps and fetid rivers" which is an unkind, but not inacurrate description of Indiana's industrial northwest corner.
These short stories cover Shepherd's youth from elementary school to his high school prom (his date is the Wanda Hickey from the title). Shepherd's genius in story-telling is his ability to take a fairly normal situation and somehow milk it for every bit of humor and add a bit of wisdom in the re-telling. All of the stories were originally published in Playboy magazine from 1966-1970.
He begins with "The Grandstand Passion Play of Delbert and the Bumpus Hounds". If you have ever had bad neighbors - neighbors with no concept of cleaning up after themselves or keeping their arguments and music inside the house - you will appreciate this story. As a bonus, this is the story that contains the infamous dogs in the kitchen scene from the movie A Christmas Story. However, in this story, it is an Easter ham, not a Christmas turkey.
Three other stories deal with Jean as a younger child. I enjoyed them all but particularly enjoyed "County Fair!" Three of the last four deal with Jean's forays into the world of dating and "The Return of the Smiling Wimpy Doll" is about the memories stirred up by a crate of childhood toys that are sent to an adult Jean Shepherd in New York City.
Summary of Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories: And Other Disasters
A bestselling classic of humorous and nostalgic Americana, reissued in a strikingly designed trade paperback edition.Before Garrison Keillor and Spalding Gray there was Jean Shepherd: a master monologist and writer who spun the materials of his all-American childhood into immensely resonant--and utterly hilarious--works of comic art.
Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories is a universal (and achingly funny) orchestration of Midwestern puberty rites, from the gut-wrenching playground antics of one Delbert Bumpus, to the supernal glow surrounding unapproachable high school beauty Daphne Bigelow, to the memorable disaster that was Shepherd's (and everyone else's) junior prom.
A comic genius who bridges the gap between James Thurber and David Sedaris, Shepherd may have accomplished for Holden, Indiana, what Mark Twain did for Hannibal, Missouri.
For that small but populous slice of the world reachable by radio station WOR (New York City and environs), Jean Shepherd was once a nightly fixture, back in the days when radio talk didn't shock. On the air, he would tell tales of his Indiana boyhood, which he eventually refined enough to write down. Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories collects the stories that first appeared in magazines in the 1960s and '70s. For that slightly larger slice of the world that has seen the hysterical 1983 movie A Christmas Story, the book's characters and setting will be instantly recognizable: the film was cobbled together from Shepherd's stories. (One thing you have to say for the man, not only was he funny, but boy, could he recycle.)
Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories guides you through every triumph and crisis of Shepherd's boyhood. One of the most entertaining involved the hijacking of the family's precious Easter ham:
BLAM!They say comedy is tragedy plus time; that's why growing up is so funny. Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories--like its author--never disappoints.
The kitchen door flew open. It had been left ajar just a crack to let the air come in to cool the ham.
I rushed to the kitchen just in time to see 4,293 blue-ticked Bumpus hounds roar through the screen door in a great, roiling mob. The leader of the pack--the one that almost got my old man every day--leaped high onto the table and grabbed the butt end of the ham in his enormous jaws. They were in and out in less than five seconds.
"HOLY CHRIST!" The old man leaped out of his chair.
"THE HAM! THE HAM! THOSE GODDAMN DOGS! THE HAM!!"
Humor 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 Humor Books
Snuffby Chuck Palahniuk
Anchor; Published: 2009-04-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Don't Eat This Bookby Morgan Spurlock
Penguin Audio; Published: 2005-05-19; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $4.85
Price in other shops:
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hellby Tucker Max
Penguin; Published: 2006; Paperback; Book
The Saber-Tooth Curriculumby J.Abner Peddiwell
Mcgraw-Hill; Published: 1959-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
Miss Americaby Howard Stern
It Books; Published: 2010-08-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.71
Price in other shops:
101 Places Not to See Before You Dieby Catherine Price
Harper Perennial; Published: 2010-06-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.49
Price in other shops:
My Life and Hard Times (Perennial Classics)by James Thurber
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 1999-10-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.80
Price in other shops:
Equal Rites: A Discworld Novel (Discworld Novels)by Terry Pratchett
Harper Perennial; Published: 2005-09-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.25
Price in other shops:
Mirth of a Nation: Audio Companion, Fellow Traveler and Friend for Life--Laff Tracks From America's Most Trusted Humor Anthologyby Michael J. Rosen
HarperAudio; Published: 2002-11-12; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $4.51
Price in other shops:
Red, White & Liberalby Alan Colmes
HarperAudio; Published: 2003-10-28; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songsby Dave Barry
Andrews McMeel Publishing; Published: 2000-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.99
Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescenceby Paul Feig
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2002-09-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.97
Price in other shops:
Jean Shepherd Ticket to Ride (Classic Radio Humor)by Jean Shepherd
Radio Again; Published: 2008-12-15; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $12.59
Price in other shops:
Excelsior, You Fathead!: The Art and Enigma of Jean Shepherdby Eugene B. Bergmann
Applause; Applause Books; Published: 2005-03-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.49
Price in other shops:
My Summer StorySony; Release date: 2006-08-01; DVD
Best price: $4.84
Price in other shops:
The Ferrari in the Bedroomby Jean Shepherd
Broadway; Published: 1986-12-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.54
Price in other shops:
Jean Shepherd: Life Is (Classic Radio Humor)by Jean Shepherd
Radio Again; Published: 2007-05-28; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $19.10
Price in other shops:
A Fistful of Fig Newtonsby Jean Shepherd
Broadway; Published: 2004-10-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.27
Price in other shops:
A Christmas Story: The Book That Inspired the Hilarious Classic Filmby Jean Shepherd
Broadway; Published: 2003-10-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.73
Price in other shops:
In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cashby Jean Shepherd
Broadway Books; Published: 1991-05-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.21
Price in other shops: