Bruce McCall's Zany Afternoons [Hardcover]

Bruce McCall (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 125 pages
• Publisher: Barnes and Noble; First Edition edition (1999)
• ISBN-10: 0760716994
• ISBN-13: 978-0760716991
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,088,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You're Looking This Up And Don't Have It, Buy It NOW, May 21, 2003

By 

J. Reynolds (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bruce McCall's Zany Afternoons (Hardcover)

If you are visiting this item in the Amazon.com online catalogue, then something special brought you here. You already know of the book, perhaps already own it, and you want to see what other say about it -- or you know nothing about it. If the latter is the case, something lucky and/or magic brought you here, and you owe it to yourself to BUY THIS BOOK NOW. Maybe you heard some snippet about it, or glanced at a copy while visiting a friend. Whatever the case, SOMETHING in your psyche drew you to this fantastic volume of fantasy and art, and you absolutely need to have a copy in your home. People drawn to Zany Afternoons, regardless of the reason, have bigger, funnier, more open and creative minds than everyone else in the world, and the common bond we all share is the book itself. Detachable pants cuffs, five-in-one food paste, tank polo -- these are the creative/artistic concepts embraced by those of us who have been chosen by nature to live on Earth and put the "life" in "lifetime." If you're here, buy it now. You'll know why, after it arrives.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Boredom is the one thing our kind can't afford", July 13, 2000

By 

The Sanity Inspector (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bruce McCall's Zany Afternoons (Hardcover)

If F. Scott Fitzgerald had been a satirical cartoonist, half of this book would be the result. The real author used to be an automobile advertisement illustrator in the '50s, which accounts for the other half of the book. See, what the other reviewers were laughing too hard to explain, is that this is a book of spoof illustrations, taken from various publications. Blueblood nostalgia for the Jazz Age is sent up in gags on conspicuous consumption like "Indoor Golf", "Autogiro Jousting" and such. The clever, name-dropping text of those pieces is very funny, also. The auto ad gags feature parodies of 1950s layouts, featuring vehicles that look like they came off the proverbial wedding cake, and double-talking sales copy, like "...with twin-lock dual-fade brakes!" Anyone who's read old copies of Popular Science will scream at the parody of the articles (the automatic nose-blowing device) and the ads (I quit, boss! There's plenty more money in ACCORDION REPAIR these days!) included here. It's hard to believe that the author of this, well, zany book is the same as the author of the painful memoir _Thin Ice: Coming of Age in Canada._ Get this book by hook or by crook!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To me the closest to perfection, May 19, 2003

By 

Gary Brown (Launceston Tasmania Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bruce McCall's Zany Afternoons (Hardcover)

...I have to say that this book is as close as I've ever come to perfection in humour. It completely matches my sense of the absurd and has such historical accuracy. The bloke really is a genius. My copy has long since fallen to pieces and I spend my life trying to buy back the copies that I gave away. Interestingly enough, many people just don't get it. You need to have a sense of what he is mocking I guess.

The funniest thing that I have ever read and looked at, this is after reading and looking at it for 20 years!!

Most highly recommended of all.