Dando Shaft [Mass Market Paperback]

Don Calhoun (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: Stein & Day Pub (June 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812817486
• ISBN-13: 978-0812817485
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,805,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the funniest books I have read!, July 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dando Shaft (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this book in the 70s and really enjoyed it. The author is very clever with his unbelievable character development and interaction. I am very sorry it is presently out of print. I had loaned it to several friends and somehow didn't get it back.

4.0 out of 5 stars Funny and raunchy satire about flimsy celebrityhood, April 11, 2011

By 

Karla Bushway "7Rabbits" (South Strafford, VT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dando Shaft (Mass Market Paperback)

Dando Shaft is a middle-aged copy writer for the Madison Avenue ad agency Willard Jones. He was one of the best in the business. He created "Get Lockfast Zippers for Social Security!" for a line of men's pants, and was hailed as a genius for naming a cereal WOW because WOW spells WOW backwards and upside down it spells MOM.

But the best days are behind Dando. His latest pitches go from the bad ("Go Steady with Zingo!" for a laxative) to the idiotic ("Doctor Cole's Corn Plasters for People with Feet"). He's burned-out in his job, he hates his boss (the feeling is mutual), his marriage has lost its lusty sheen, he doesn't really talk to his kid, and he's prone to go off into flights of whimsy to escape it all. He's not above eyeing any scantily-clad hottie on the train, but only fantasizes about going beyond the looking stage. He's got his steaks and martini lunches, and G&Ts as soon as he comes through the door at home, but he's not a very happy guy. His wife nags at him about the leaky roof in their quaint, antique, perfectly-furnished farmhouse, and tolerates his eccentricities. He wants excitement, money, SEX.

So he decides to become a millionaire by taking out a full-page ad in the New York Daily News (for the whopping sum of $3,000) saying that he will live the millionaire's life for you, betting on peoples' love of living vicariously through someone else. All it takes is a donation. He becomes a pop culture sensation and, while not exactly hauling in a cool mil, does pull in enough to dazzle the masses and get the PTBs into a class warfare tizzy. Meanwhile, Dando gets into an affair with the luscious and manipulative Bunny Fairchild, a tramp who has a Lolita act that suckers in the 50-somethings every single time.

Will Dando realize that all that glitters ain't gold? And if so, is he a reformed boy, or an incorrigible dreamer?

Why yes, this is a satire on the 60s and the American phenom of fad celebrities - including the perverse glee over the inevitable crash-and-burn of a public darling. It's a slapstick satire, with crude and raunchy humor alongside very dry sarcasm. I loved it and was giggling throughout the whole thing.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, funny, funny, April 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dando Shaft (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is about a man that comes up with the scheme to make himself 'Everybody's Millionaire'. Some of the exploits are just hilarious, for instance, the time he climbs upon the top of a car to scare the occupants but he waits until the car is moving then pulls himself to look down through the windshield and the driver slams on the brakes and Dando goes tumbling over the hood to the pavement.