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amysbrittain's review against another edition
2.0
I hope this one picks up quickly. I read an essay with McCracken that I loved, and I liked "The Giant's House." So I checked out this book and "Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry" from the library. So far, I'm not feeling too invested in this story of a vaudevillian performer and his life. Might have to abandon it if I'm not enthralled soon.
Eh, I quit. I'm not engaged and life's too short.
Eh, I quit. I'm not engaged and life's too short.
gjmaupin's review against another edition
4.0
A Straight Man's story. Oh, you know what I mean. Anyway, it's about time.
letsreadmorebooks's review against another edition
2.0
i had a hard time identifying why i should care about this story. i never figured it out. i would have enjoyed it more as a short story.
jmooremyers's review against another edition
3.0
God makes his own bargains. God is a businessman, and God loves those in his store, and God does not give things away. You may go from one end of this world to the other, from the plains by the Nemen River in Lithuania to the plains by the Raccoon River in America: there are prices for everything. You do not live without paying terrible, terrible prices for the flimsiest of pleasures, the smallest rewards. So your bargain with God is arranged by God, and afterward you can only walk away, and look at what you have closed in your fist, and use that as best you can. (p 45)
You meet someone, and you take all sorts of things on faith, but it doesn't feel like faith. You have to be a little faithless to talk of faith; if you believe, it's all facts. (p 69)
She wore on her face as sleepy-eyed expression that might have been the start of pleasure, irritation, hunger, amusement, deep thought, any number of things that look identical at the start, though unlike at the end. (p 77)
I never understood it fully, until the accident [Betty]. A lost child means - in a way a living child never does - a little less love for those who are left. (p 220)
You meet someone, and you take all sorts of things on faith, but it doesn't feel like faith. You have to be a little faithless to talk of faith; if you believe, it's all facts. (p 69)
She wore on her face as sleepy-eyed expression that might have been the start of pleasure, irritation, hunger, amusement, deep thought, any number of things that look identical at the start, though unlike at the end. (p 77)
I never understood it fully, until the accident [Betty]. A lost child means - in a way a living child never does - a little less love for those who are left. (p 220)
floribunda52's review against another edition
3.0
as noted before, this book was a long slog. I did enjoy the last 50-or-so pages more than the rest of it...
minvanwin's review against another edition
2.0
I really enjoyed McCracken's first novel, Giant's House, about a small town librarian's love for the world's tallest boy. It was a quirky romance that worked. This--a portrait of two vaudeville comedians' partnership and friendship--I liked considerably less.
stenaros's review against another edition
3.0
A nicely written novel about one half of a Laurel and Hardy-esque comedy team. The book begins in the waining days of Vaudville and continues through the 40s and 50s as our comedy team becomes famous. Mose Sharp is the straight man and it is interesting to watch the contrast between his life on screen as well as off screen when compared to his comic sidekick.