Customer Reviews

Rain in the Doorway (World Cultural Heritage Library)

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That one man could be at once this melancholy and this hilarious is much of Smith's genious. If not for the gut-splitting humor he would be down-right depressing...but boy, is he not! This is theatre of the absurd at its best. Be prepared to laugh uncontrollably and make a total fool of yourself (if anyone can see you).Thorne Smith was the "racey" writter of my father's youth and my "sibs" and I learned the value of a good laugh at dad's knee.Thorne Smith is the best, I search for more.

Smith is remembered today (if at all) for "Topper", which in turn is probably known from the TV show and, for old-timers, the movie. In fact, Smith was a side-splitting humorist, and even the Topper tales are much better than the screen versions (or does that not need saying?).

This little gem of a novel is very possibly his finest work, the madcap nature of it more compressed and condensed than his usual, and more zany: it must remind one of the style of the Marx Brothers.

And, as has been noted, the book is not just funny, but bitingly funny: it has things to say, and it delivers them as cyanic acid at the heart of rich sweets. Fantastic, funny, insightful--a wonderful (literally) book.