Customer Reviews

Diminished Capacity

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Diminished Capacity is one of my alltime favorite summer cottage reads.Wacky but loveable characters abound in a story that has laughs and wit in every paragraph.Although our hero believes he suffers from diminished capacities, his sweet nature and clever means of coping provides a strong,funny and moral guide to any helpless souls trying to navigate lifes quirky roadblocks. I recomend reading this by the water on hot hazy day and letting your mind drift with our forgetful hero. But a warning; guard your copy because when your friends hear the quantity of your laughter they will all want to borrow it.My copy is long gone and I still here from friends who have just read or received it. In true great book fashion it is being passed along like a chain-letter and has a life of its own. ENJOY!

I have a book review blog at blogspot.com called "Between the Covers" that reviewed this on February 16, 2009:

This book is a nice quick read that I finished in a two-day hardcore reading session. It is an easy read, but one of the most fun books I have read in a while. The characters alone would be enough to entertain you, but the things they have to go through together make it that much better. This is a fully enjoyable book.

When Cooper Zerbs has to deal with his Uncle Rollie, who has Alzheimer's, going back to the small Missouri town where he grew up and moved out of makes the start of an interesting weekend. The pair joins up with Cooper's recently divorced high school girlfriend and her son to travel to Chicago to sell an extremely rare baseball card. The only thing is, an uncle with Alzheimer's and a main character with a recent head injury are not the best pair to try and transport and sell a baseball card. Half the time they can't even remember where they last hid it to keep it safe. This card is a very valuable secret, which means that Uncle Rollie is constantly whipping it out to tell everyone, which leads to trouble with other card collectors in desperate times who hear about it, know its value and will do anything to try and get it away from the forgetful pair.

Like I said, the characters make this book. I don't know how anyone could not be a fan of someone who sets up a typewriter on a dock with strings leading into the water so fish can write their poetry. A woman who agrees to drive with her son to Chicago because she is interested in selling a painting to a new chain of organic vegetable restaurants makes a perfect mate for the main character who is just as forgetful as the uncle he is trying to help. The desperate baseball memorabilia collectors at the convention show you how far one will go for your passion, no matter how odd. And when the silent boy ends up saving the day, you can't help but feel proud. The characters are only one reason why this book is a must read. The plot is not very complicated, but as a reader you will still find yourself glued to the book until it is complete.

I would recommend this book to any reader looking for a quick fun read over a weekend or vacation or whatever, but I would especially recommend it to baseball lovers, any collector, and possibly to those who know or are related to someone affected by Alzheimer's disease. You will leave this book smiling and possibly with sore sides from all that laughing.

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read."
- Mark Twain

This is one of the funniest books I have ever read. Diminished Capacity. If you want a "laugh out loud" fun time, take an afternoon off to read this book. While the plot is intriguing, it is not the best thing about this book. Sherwood Kiraly writes with some of the most hilarious little zingers that can catch you off guard. You have to read this book slowly, or you might miss some of the subtle humor that will just send you guffawing when you take the time to enjoy the playful writing. I save this book to read again and again, when I need a "pick-me-up" as it always leaves me chuckling for days when I think of some of the wonderful "way with words" that Mr. Kiraly shares with us.

This book is absolutely adorable! How can you not love it when it features two characters with "diminished capacity" (great title!) - Cooper, who is struggling with the after-effects of a head injury, and his uncle Rollie, who has Alzheimer's. A baseball card also figures in the story - so much so it becomes a character as well. I don't care one bit about baseball cards, but I found myself rooting for this one! The book also has other great characters - Charlotte, Cooper's love interest; her son Dillon; Stan, who caused the head injury and is now trying to make up for it; and Mad Dog, Billy and Vivyan, baseball card collectors. To enhance the hilarity, Rollie has an obsession with publishing poetry written by fish. All in all, a very amusing book!

This book is so good, that you can't stop thinking about it. Kiraly's imagination and imagery are superb. This would make a great movie! Very seldom does such a book come with rich characters original writing style and have a great plot. You will fall in love with the characters and become genuinely involved in their lives. This story is a true joy - I didn't want it to end. I'm staying tuned for the sequel.

A whack on the head and a rare baseball card start a chain of events that bring together the Zerbs, uncle and nephew, to save themselves and their card from misfortune, greedy card dealers, and an assortment of thugs. Their parapetic course stimies the bad guys and wins the girl while showing us all our own Dimished Capacity. Memorable, quirky characters, evocative of Confederacy of Dunces, populate the novel and eventually our own lives and acquaintance. Loving reverence for the national pasttime permeates this story. Extra base hit for Cubs fans.

Pity the poor humorless soul who fails to appreciate this delightful story. Kiraly's gentle comic genius shines at every level, from the inspired lunacy of Uncle Rollie's fish poetry to Cooper Zerb's addlebrained, Don-Quixote-like quest in aid of his equally sanity-challenged relative. While you howl with laughter, though, you also smile in sympathy with these deftly-drawn creations, and ultimately find your faith in your fellow man subtly restored as Cooper discovers, at the end of his quest, that his true fortune lies in his undiminished capacity to love. A true gem of a book.

The situtations and characters in this story about an old man who collects the writings of fish and his loser nephew are hardly realistic or convincing. I guess some readers would find the book "charming." I read it because a friend who reads a lot of books I recommend told me to, and it was short. The events depicted are pretty ridiculous and unlikely, but the likable characters held my interest. It has a cartoonish quality and would probably make a good movie vehicle for Jim Carey. It's just not my kind of book.

This is the funniest book I have read in a very long time. People asked me what was so funny as I burst out laughing and all I could tell them is you have to read this book because you just have to be there.