3.5
The Thurber Carnival
ByPublisher Description
James Thurber's unique ability to convey the vagaries of life in a funny, witty, and often satirical way earned him accolades as one of the finest humorists of the twentieth century. A bestseller upon its initial publication in 1945,
captures the depth of his talent and the breadth of his wit. The stories compiled here, almost all of which first appeared in
, are from his uproarious and candid collection
—including the American classic "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'—as well as from
,
, and
. Thurber's take on life, society, and human nature is timeless and will continue to delight readers even as they recognize a bit of themselves in his brilliant sketches.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Thurber Carnival Reviews
3.5
“In 1944, a man who was going blind sat down to choose the best of everything he had ever written.
His name was James Thurber. He had one functional eye, a deadline and a life's worth of genius to sift through.
The result was The Thurber Carnival and it is unlike anything you have read.
The book exists because of a dead man. Thurber's editor, Gene Saxton, had the idea for this anthology but did not live to see it published. James Thurber assembled it almost as an act of grief — a carnival built in someone's honour, lights strung up over a loss.
The Book Moves Through Nine Sections and Each One Feels Like A Different Room In The Same Strange House.
The stories follow ordinary people — mostly men — trapped in the very ordinary business of being alive. A husband and wife disagreeing over small things that are somehow about everything. A man whose daydreams are more real to him than the street he is walking on. People who are neither heroes nor villains, just — recognisably human in the most uncomfortable way.
Then there are the autobiographical pieces from My Life and Hard Times — and this is where the book becomes something else entirely. These are memories from his Columbus, Ohio childhood and they read like Kafka if Kafka had grown up in a house where the bed could fall on you, the dam could break and the dog bit everyone except the one person who deserved it. Chaos treated with the calm of a man who has accepted that life has no explanation.
The fables are short. Brutal. Each one ends with a moral so sideways it takes a moment to realise it's the truest thing you've read all week.
The Combination Is Rare. The Result Is Rarer.
What ties all of it together is Thurber's voice. Dry, unhurried, never asking for your approval. He writes about embarrassment and smallness and the quiet ridiculousness of everyday life and he does it with such precision that you feel, page after page, that someone has finally said the thing you could never find words for.
Okay: This is the book you will recommend before you have even finished it.”
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