Review: Four for a buck. Worth it.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 31, 2012
Four good stories; great price.Benjamin Button:Born as a 70 year old man, Button is oft rejected by his Father (surprisingly no real mention of his mother - ever) and all social institutions appropriate for his age. As he gets older, he is in fact aging in reverse - meaning that things sort of balance out when he's roughly 35. He gradually reverts physically to infantilism where the story ends. In my own opinion it may have been more interesting if Fitzgerald had pressed further biologically and had him turned zygotic then divided sperm / egg and then ultimate non-existence... but that'd be too surreal (note: sarcasm).Bernice Gets a Bob:Women's hair - contextually for the time a hot-point issue, short hair was rebellious and usually seen as defeminizing (I'm a huge sucker for short-ish hair, wicked sexy - hello 2012!). Bernice, one of the most boring women depicted in literature, begins taking lessons on how to attract men from her cousin Marjorie. What Bernice is unaware of is that it is all part of a grand ruse to humiliate her. She, however, in the wee hours of the night has the last laugh and ultimate vindication - what you maliciously hope happens, does and it's fulfilling.The Jelly Bean:A `jelly bean' is someone who is no more than an idler, a tumbleweed that rolls whichever way the wind blows and seems to have no interest in manifesting their own ambitions (if they even have any).The story revolves around Jim, the jelly-bean, who idles about doing much of nothing and not showing much interest in doing anything anyhow. That is until he re-encounters Nancy and is prepared to change his life and do something with it... I do suppose though that when love goes awry before take-off, reversion to what you are familiar is only natural.Dalyrimple Goes Wrong:Caught in the grind a young man turns to dishonest ways of getting ahead. He rationalizes that the only way to get to the top is to `be hard', which basically translates to: doing whatever you want sans moral scruples because someone, somewhere, is going to do the same to you. Humanistic in the most pessimistic sense, it's no wonder that Dalyrimple aligns with politics.