Slouching Towards Kalamazoo

Rediscovering DeVries is pure delight.

I just finished this book. I could not put it down. Peter De Vries is a brillaint comic writer. I put him up there with Woody Allen. His characters were so void of common sense yet "book smart". The situation with Tony getting his teacher pregnant in one passionate moment was the funniest thing I ever read. It never struck me as "dirty" or off color. The way the two of them handled the "delicate situation" was side splittingly funny. I have to say that when Tony starting reciting the "chief products of Venezuela" I almost fell on the floor laughing. I was also very taken by his father and the way the author described how he would read from books to his wife and Tony. The expression he would use in his voice could almost be "heard" by me because the author described it so well. My favorite line from the book was in the beginning. Tony's teacher had assigned "The Scarlet letter". The mayor being a "percursor to todays Moral Majority" said,"We're gonna tighten our Bible Belt! "We're gonna show'em we're the buckle of the belt". I live in a very conservative state and it would be something I just might hear and have to giggle. I highly recommend this book. It is a winner.

First fictional book I've read since I was a child. I was very satisfied with the story, witty and comical. Required me to do look up many things during the course of reading that I was ignorant about, but that's not a bad thing in my opinion.

A fun read, brain tickling humor, the story is not what makes this book so great, it is the way in which he tells it. Very clever.

DeVries has it all over SJ Perelman. This is his gem.