Customer Reviews

Just Desserts: A Novellelah

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Just Desserts, by Carl Reiner (136 pgs., 2009). Professional comedy writer, standup comedian, comic actor & author Carl Reiner calls this short work of fiction, a novellelah. That is a takeoff on the old Yiddish expression of affection. It harkens back to when my Grandma Hinda called my Mom, Mickelah or called me Robertelah. In this case, Reiner, was attempting to coin a new word for something shorter than a novella; which usually comes in at 100+ pages. He was aiming for 60+ pages, but ended up with 136 pages. Thus, his subtitle, "A Novellelah," is incorrect on its face. Oh well . . . it just blends in with the rest of this satirical sendup of the internet, egoism, G-d, religion, immortality, being famous, plagiarism and split personalities.

Is G-d talking to Nat Noland? This is Reiner's name for himself in this book. However, he also uses Carl Reiner as a character reference later on in the book. Is G-d talking to Noland by way of the internet? Who is R.K.? Why does Noland's publisher accuse him of plagiarism when he tells him about his new book? How has his publisher already received nearly identical pages from a person calling himself R.K.? How does the title of the book get changed from Blurbs to Just Desserts?

When Noland wishes that people who behave in ways that are mean, cruel or just wrong would receive their "just desserts" from G-d, is G-d listening? Noland wishes that people who are mean to others lose their ability to walk, for a time. Soon after, Noland's friend is in a rush to meet him for a lunch date and he grabs a cab which an elderly couple were trying to enter. Soon, this friend starts hopping.

He loses his ability to walk. He can only make small hops, so that it takes him at least twenty minutes to travel a mere fifteen feet. Noland tells him to repent. His friend repents. Eventually, he can walk again. Government leaders have growing noses when they tell lies at a United Nations Conference. When they admit they were lying, their noses eventually shrink back to their normal size. Did one of these incidents really occur while the other one didn't? Did they both occur? Did none of them?

All the reader does is grin widely all the way through this novellelah right to the end.

I must preface this by saying The Dick Van Dyke Show is one of my all-time favorites. I wanted to like this book, but I found it an incredibly unfunny self-indulgent ego trip of an exercise. When an author names God with a ridiculous word play on his own name...well, it only goes down hill from there. It's short. That's its one saving grace.