Whatever it is, I don't like it
By: Howard Jacobson
Edition: Large print ed.
Series: Clipper large print
Publisher: W F Howes
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Rearsby
Language: eng
Number of pages: 422
ISBN-13: 9781407485966
Subjects: Anecdotes; English wit and humor; Large type books
Description: It takes a particular kind of man to want an embroidered polo player astride his left nipple. Occasionally, when I am tired and emotional, or consumed with self-dislike, I try to imagine myself as someone else, a wearer of Yarmouth shirts and fleecy sweats, of windbreakers and rugged Tyler shorts, of baseball caps with polo players where the section of the brain that concerns itself with aesthetics is supposed to be. But the hour passes. Good men return from fighting Satan in the wilderness the stronger for their struggle, and so do I. The winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize, Howard Jacobson, brims with life in this collection of his most acclaimed journalism. From the unusual disposal of his father-in-law's ashes and the cultural wasteland of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to the melancholy sensuality of Leonard Cohen and desolation of Wagner's tragedies, Jacobson writes with all the thunder and joy of a man possessed. Absurdity piles upon absurdity, and glorious sentences weave together to create a hilarious, heartbreaking and uniquely human collection. This book is not just a series of parts, but an irresistible, unputdownable sum which triumphantly out-Thurbers Thurber.
Table of contents: title: Introductionh; title: The Sultan's elephant; title: The effing Icelandic volcano; title: Libraries; title: The part of me that is forever Cosa Nostra; title: Juicing; title: Books are bad for you; title: The twentieth century? Tosh; title: The Chatfield pant; title: 'Keep smiling'; title: Franz Kafka; title: Rigoletto; title: Pie pellicane; title: Best gig in Edinburgh; title: All at sea; title: Corrugation road; title: Suddenly I'm homesick; title: Australian hairdressers; title: O Sole Mio; title: Dining out solus; title: Freed from rage; title: Blubber; title: Giselle; title: Holiday reading; title: Pity the poor porkers and damn the swine that gave them fever; title: Death of Dudley [Moore]; title: Cherie [Blair] baby and the bombers; title: Human values; title: Girls will be girls; title: Me ol' Bam-boo; title: Travis; title: Loving the inchoate; title: Bad time of the year; title: Every day is Father's Day; title: In defence of melancholia; title: Jordan or Iraq; title: The great chain of being; title: Auschwitz; title: Gay in the Judy Garland sense; title: Wherefore art thou, Charlie? [Prince of Wales]; title: Nates; title: The full Monty; title: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow; title: The greatness of Philip Guston; title: Darts and the man; title: Everyone's gone to the moon [Jonathan King]; title: Good for you, bad for you; title: Anyone speak English?; title: Friendly banking; title: O the opal and the sapphire of that wandering western sea; title: Unconditionality and murder; title: What things are for; title: How to upset a millionaire; title: Dying like a gentleman; title: Death of Alma; title: Some of his best friends; title: The grave question of the bicycle; title: [David] Blunkett in love; title: Porn for Royals; title: Like-mindedness; title: Mind your own business; title: The egotism of the terrorist; title: You cannot have a margin unless you have a centre; title: God and blokes; title: Thou shalt not know what one is talking about; title: Alida Valli and the eroticism of the raincoat; title: [Graeme] Dott and sympathy; title: It don't mean a thing unless it's got that swing; title: If its 'readable' don't read it; title: Hodgepodge; title: Tristan and Isolde; title: Natural-born killers; title: What if Joseph K. did it?; title: Be very afraid; title: Art for us; title: Vengeance is mine; title: 'A gentle vacancy of spirit'; title: What are they saying?; title: Leonard Cohen in concert; title: Noe-Beaver; title: The last cigarette; title: Savage torpor; title: Pinteresque; title: Washington I; title: Washington II; title: Elitism for everybody; title: Glue sticks and human rights; title: Dad skills; title: Man Booker.