Customer Reviews

Double Wonderful

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This new "Wonderful" book from John Swartzwelder revolves around the folks of Slackjaw, Kansas & their search for something more. Not only are they unable get their town as famous as Dodge City or Tombstone, they can't seem to get it noticed at all. Even the outlaws they've invited to town (some of the most infamous, from Billy the Kid to Billy No-Pants) were scared off because the citizens of the town were over-eager (everyone pretending to be dead in the streets, leaving the bank vault wide-open). They've tried everything but their tourist trade is still doing terribly.

The world-famous Betty & Buck Wonderful, owners of the Double Wonderful Ranch, can't seem to help them, either (though they sell them plenty of high quality Betty & Buck merchandise at cost). All seems lost until a stranger shows up to town & changes their lives, forever.

A hilarious satire of not only the Old West, including many Old West stereotypes the author successfully flips on their heads, but of fame & celebrities. Add to that Swartzwelder's often absurd, off-beat comedy throughout and you end up with a thoroughly delightful read.

Highly recommended, not just for fans of the Old West but for fans of great comedy.

One-hundred and fifty one pages is a good length for this book. It is funny, but since it's more like a series of humorous sketches glues together with silly one-liners you never connect emotionally with the characters and because of that you could care less what happens to them. It's like reading a novelization of an insane comedy like AIRPLANE! or HOT SHOTS.

John Swartzwelder, who you might remember from such "Simpsons" as "Bart gets an Elephant" and "Homer the Smithers", penned this nutty Western about the desperate lengths the residents of Slackjaw, Kansas go to become famous and then their even wilder endeavors to become unfamous.

Funny stuff, but nothing groundbreaking or barn door blasting, if you enjoy some of the early wacky short stories by Woody Allen you'll probably like this book.

John Swartzwelder, notoriously reclusive Simpsons scribe, is known for penning some of that show's funniest and most culturally pointed episodes. He is capable of being absurd without succumbing to plot-driven idiocy and able to nestle high-brow-rising humor next to the goofiest of puns without skipping a beat. Few of the show's current writers can boast his kind of output, whether you're measuring it by episode or by how many gags he can fit into any given minute.

His books (four so far) don't try to follow coherency as much as his work on The Simpsons. Instead, he uses the medium as a forum for his stream-of-consciousness wise-cracking. Mass by volume, these slim tomes have the same silly density as his episodes, even if they sprawl ten times as much. For the most part, Swartzwelder sticks to the same basic formula that made his shows a success: a fat and idiotic central character gets into all manner of monkey-shines and comes out mostly unchanged. Instead of Homer, though, our main man is called Frank Burly.

THE TIME MACHINE DID IT
Frank Burly introduces us to his unlikely career as a private eye. Although his primary talents are screwing things up and getting beaten on a regular basis, he ends up with a fairly important case. A bum claims that he used to be a millionaire, but criminals with a time machine retroactively stole his wealth. Burly's in over his head (heck, this guy gets in over his head just trying to tie his shoes), but that doesn't stop him from barreling headfirst into the mystery and subsequently making it messier and harder to solve. Quickly written, hastily plotted, and genuinely funny, this is one of the few books I've ever read that's gotten me to laugh out-loud, and on a regular basis. 5 Stars. FAVORITE LINE: Frank Burly, on his imprisonment and torture by the criminals -- "I held up under all this pretty well. I was sleeping like a baby -- waking up every three hours screaming and crapping my pants."

DOUBLE WONDERFUL
Swartzwelder makes a mistake. Instead of one central character with the brains of a dusty cactus, he creates an entire town of them. The citizens of the Wild West town of Slackjaw are having economic troubles. Part of their problem is that the "wild" in their western town is missing; it's a pretty boring place, plus it exists in the shadows of the world-renowned Double Wonderful ranch, run by a wealthy couple who are so perfect, God owes them favors. They try desperately to bring fame and/or notoriety to their little corner of the world, but most of their ideas are pretty lame (encourage bandits to rob them, hang the mayor, etc.). They eventually get their wish, and it's mildly amusing, but the scattered scope of the story's lunacy and its slap-dash conclusion are pretty harried. You won't laugh as much as you'll roll your eyes. Not bad; not great. Notable mainly because the story's central theme (the horrifying price of fame) gives you some real clues as to why Mr. Swartzwelder himself so adamantly chooses to stay out of the spotlight. 3 Stars. MOST SELF-REFERENTIAL LINE: "...Buntline said that short books were the best selling kind ... That's what the reading public wanted in a book these days, he said. They wanted to get as close as possible to not reading at all."

HOW I CONQUERED YOUR PLANET
Swartzwelder, catching on, brings Frank Burly back to the fore. He's still a private detective, he's still pretty bad at it, and he's still stumbling backwards into strange cases (and sometimes plate glass windows). This time the case may have something to do with Martians. Or maybe it's Neptunians. They're both very similar, as far as aliens look, although it's harder to pronounce the word "Neptunians." While going about his daily routine of getting in the way of things, Frank ends up alienating (nyuk, nyuk) all sorts of planetary species. And, of course, he conquers your planet. Not as consistent as "Time Machine," but much sharper than "Double Wonderful." 4 Stars. FAVORITE LINE: Frank Burly, on his new alien secretary -- "...I discovered that I had hired a surprisingly dedicated secretary, who listened in on my phone calls, patted down my visitors, looked through my desk for me each morning before I got in, even appeared in my dreams taking notes."

THE EXPLODING DETECTIVE
Frank Burly's back, this time augmenting his act with a mostly-malfunctioning jetpack. His inability to steer is overshadowed, however, by his ability to withstand multiple explosive collisions, and he becomes something of a superhero. The new title doesn't fit him so well, because it requires that he get up before noon and commit all kinds of acts, most of them selfless and painful. He ends up getting involved in a battle against a super villain, a washed up James Bond type, and another time machine. Although this book is as funny as the previous, it makes it obvious that, while Burly's adventures through time and space are all well and good, Swartzwelder might do well to actually keep his gags confined to the realm of detective work. I doubt it took the man longer than a couple of days to write any of these books, but this is the first time I felt it really showed. 4 Stars. FAVORITE LINE: Frank Burly has infiltrated a Secret Club for Super Villains, searching for his would-be assassin -- "I continued around the room ... making it sound like I was a new member who was just making conversation. "Have you been trying to kill me?" I would ask, casually. "I'm just curious. Or we could talk about the weather, if you like. The weather's been trying to kill me too.'"

If you're going to choose one of John Swartzwelder's books to read, this is not the one I would go for. Don't get me wrong, it's an amusing book, but it pales in comparison to The Time Machine Did It or How I Conquered Your Planet.
John's strategy for writting comedy seems to be, come up with a really stupid person, then just watch them be stupid. In this case there's a whole town filled with stupid people. 20 times the number of stupid people should make the story 20 times better, right? Not so much. At first it's fun watching the townsfolk being dumb. However, it quickly gets rather lackluster.
My advice, don't try to read this book in one sitting. You'll quickly begin to hate all of the characters. It's a small book, but just read a few chapters a day. It will take a lot longer, but you'll enjoy it a lot more.

A funny, if brief, read. This is Swartzwelder's second book, and the second I've read, and if you liked "Time Machine" and/or his Simpsons style, you should pick this up. (Actually, even if you weren't nuts about TTMDI, you might consider this, since it's not as confusing.)

On the other hand, he really needs to get a copy editor or proofreader or something. At the very least, could someone tell him that the possessive of "it" is not "it's"?

When this book arrived I was suprised at how incredibley short it was. It's only 151 pages and the type-face is relatively large. But nonetheless, I enjoyed the book and I found it to be very entertaining. You can tell the author is a writer for the Simpsons because the humor is quick, almost random at some points, and the book cuts from scene to scene very rapidly. It's an EXTREMELY fast-paced book. I finished it in about a day. But if you enjoy the Simpsons, like I do, then you'll definetly enjoy this book.

"Honest John Turley" (rhymes with Burly), mayor of Slackjaw Kansas, opens Double Wonderful with a "Modest Proposal" to some of the worst villains the Wild West has to offer, including Cole Younger, John Wesely Hardin, the Dalton Boys, Black Bart (a name the criminal Charles E. Boles took from a dime novel), and several others:

"I realize you've got a lot of robbing to do... so I won't bother you. I just wanted to let you know that the town is completely at your mercy. The bank is right there. Or you can rob the jewelry store first. If you're worried about the law, don't be. We buried our sheriff last week up there on Sheriff Hill." (pp2-3)

Slackjaw is located near the surrealistically perfect Double Wonderful ranch. The locals can't stand the owners, Buck and Betty, because they have everything the townsfolk crave: fame and fortune. Unfortunately, the locals have absolutely no talent, and as Gore Vidal once observed: "Having no talent is no longer enough."

Enter Ned Buntline (the real nom de plume of Edward Zone Carroll Judson, the originator of the dime novel [and the survivor of a lynching]):

"I'm not going to make one of your famous: I'm going to make all of you famous. I'm going to tell the world that Slackjaw Kansas is the home of the drunkest town drunk, the most law enforcing sheriff, the most accommodating prostitute, and the most... uh... prescriptive druggist in the whole United States. You're all champions, the best at what you do." (pg. 40)

After a misguided governmental "might makes right" takeover, Buck and Betty invoke an even mightier might to give Slackjaw a complete "do-over," bringing this swift little satire to a Double Wonderful conclusion.

There seems to be a consensus that this book isn't as good as Swartzwelder's Frank Burly books, and I kind of agree, but this books is still hilarious. The old west town of Slackjaw just can't seem to get famous. Everyone knows why--nobody there is talented or special in any way--but they still want to do something about it. When an old west novelist comes through town, it sets off a ridiculous string of events that eventually makes Slackjaw the most famous town in the old west, then eventually makes it crumble to nothing.

I first knew of Swartzwelder as a writer of "Simpsons" episodes, and didn't even know he wrote books until I heard them discussed on "Simpsons" commentary tracks. I sought them out and I'm glad I did. Swartzwelder's books are hilarious, and very easy to read. Highly recommended.

... is that the most satirical stuff often isn't funny.

This book is a rather lame western setting for a biting satire of fame, government, media and history. It has some very funny one liners and plenty of zany moments, but overall the scope of the satire is so broad and the narration so basic that the book reads fairly clunky. Compared to The Time Machine Did It -- a book I read in one sitting, then re-read that night, and subsequently loaned to everybody I could find until it was eventually stolen and I ordered another copy -- this book took me a month, as each chapter piqued my interest but never held it.

This book operates on more levels than you can believe for a work of 140-some-odd pages. It just doesn't WORK on all those levels. There's a Simpsons allegory, and honestly that's the best part.