Review: Storytelling that needs more of a story
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 21, 2011
To paraphrase the real Dorothy Parker, "Hair of the Dog" runs the gamut of emotion from A to B. This short, short story is a morsel, so slim is almost reads as a teaser for the author's more substantial Algonquin Round Table mystery "Murder Your Darlings."It's a story about the celebrated Algonquin Round Table and its storied writers. Here we only get to meet Parker, and that's too bad since the wisecracks and witticism thrown around by Parker, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman, Harold Ross, Harpo Marx and others, are what gave the round table its cache and celebrity."Hair of the Dog" isn't bad; it just doesn't stir up much: no excitement, no out-loud laughter, no surprises, no real mystery or suspense, no outrageous goings-on. It's storytelling that could benefit from more of a story.But with that said, it's fluff probably worth the price and the time invested in finding out who (or what) is responsible for running off with the tray of veal that was supposed to be the evening special in the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel in 1920s Manhattan.Was it Woody, Parker's "bug-eyed, bat-eared" Boston terrier or was it the waiter Pietro who needed a main dish for his mother's 80th birthday celebration? It isn't too difficult to figure out the answer.It's fairly obvious Murphy did not set out to bust your brains solving the mystery. He's writing a light entertainment and he sort of succeeds. One of Parker's notable quotes is "Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words." This is one story that could have used more wit as well as a few more wisecracks.