Customer Reviews

Lying, Cheating, and Stealing: Great Writers on Getting What You Want When You Want It

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

 

 

I wanted this book to be cool, I really did. The truth is that it's a faker. It looks cool, it sounds cool, it smells cool; but this book is not the fun, edgy collection of essay, prose, and short stories it should have been. There are a couple gems: e e cummings, Woody Allen, O.Henry, and two articles about the biggest lie and faking orgasms.
But don't be fooled about how hot those stories sound, the rest of the book is a bore. It seems to me that the editor (who made a large number of gramatical and spelling editing mistakes, as well as the obvious blunder and collecting the stories in this book) simply went through a high school book of American short stories and picked out the ones with the words "lying", "cheating", or "stealing" in them.
What this book should have been is obvious: Kerouac, Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, London, Wilde, Byron, Palahniuk, Virginia Woolf's notorious pranking. The good, real, gritty, edgy stuff.
The one star I gave this book is for the faces I got while reading a book called "Lying, Cheating & Stealing" in public.

Lying, Cheating & Stealing brings back the days when getting rich and getting even were more important than multitasking, working out, and recycling. This priceless collection will remind everyone how good it feels to get what you want -- in bed, in the bank, and just in the nick of time. Bad boys and girls rejoice! Once again revenge is sweet, cheaters prosper, and nice guys finish last

I don't see how one could review this book negatively. It has some great excerpts in it from books, very good books, in some cases very witty books, that I have read. I was baffled by the review that gave it the lowest rating. The Woody Allen piece that opens the book is indeed SO good that one can't help but be jealous. I was laughing all the way thru it and green with envy. I wish I could write like that, and be so funny for so long!

There is an excerpt from one of my all-time favorite books, THE DUKE OF DECEPTION. If you haven't read this book, you simply must. It is so very well written, so unusual, really, and would have to have been a difficult book to write, about the author's father who was a quite remarkable con man in his own inimitable fashion. It is a book both funny and very sad, and unlike any other book I have ever read.

There is also an excerpt from a book by Tobias Wolff, brother of Geoffrey Wolff, who wrote THE DUKE OF DECEPTION. Tobias wrote an autobiographical book, THIS BOY'S LIFE, that is another of the most memorable books I have read. I read a lot of books. For me even to remember a book means it was very very good. (I wish I kept a list of the books I have read, as I have forgotten some great books I know I'd like to read again.)

The list of authors in this book contains some impressive names - Russell Banks, S.J.Pearlman, Dashiell Hammett, James Thurber, Mark Twain, Russell Baker, O. Henry, Dorothy Parker, to name only some of them. As I have said, I am baffled that anyone could say that it is not a book that delivers on its promise - good - and funny - stories about people who went ahead and did what they wanted, often thumbing their noses at convention, and, occasionally, at the law.

So if you like funny books, and good short stories, read this one. Funny books/stories are actually few and far between and really quite difficult to write.