Customer Reviews

Money is Love

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

 

 

The gods--all of them!--have formed the third congress for the evaluation of sin because they don't understand the flap about money. Why is everyone so interested in it? WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT??? To answer this, they "take" two people and watch them interact. At first it's just supposed to be the two interacting with each other, but pretty soon the gods get into the picture, too. Zeus, acting the part of a horny municipal court judge, dodges Hera's wrath while chasing all the supernatural skirts he can. N'Zuriel ("Little Yaweh") keeps hitting the pause button situated on the side of his throne to stop action so that they can catch up on and analyze (incorrectly) what they're seeing, then restarts the action when they're satisfied. Know how sometime you lose track of what you're doing? That's when N'Zuriel hits the button. Want more? Find the book. Prepare for belly pain from excess hilarity.

Let me put it this way: I own three copies of the book and keep looking for it in used bookstores. I've read nearly all of Condon's books but this is my favorite - the concept is funny, the characters are funny, the dialogue is funny and it all works. Track it down.

"Money Is Love" gives new, superlative meaning to "tour de force." This is without question in my mind, at the very least one of the most brilliant novels ever written. And though I am not exactly a connosseur of novels (I've read a few hundred or more in my time and for several years have been completing one myself), much more importantly this is a demonstration of a brilliant, brilliant mind, unfortunately lost to us some few years ago. Author of "Prizzi's Honor" and "The Manchurian Candidate" this book -- "Money Is Love" -- is so exceedingly brilliant -- "very, very funny, humorous," of course, but those book review plaudits are in my judgment far beside the point: this is evidence of a brilliant mind at work. And a mind every sensitive reader can appreciate virtually in every paragraph, every line. (I might add that though "The Manchurian Candidate" was a very thoughtful, well-written book, in itself it gave little indication of Condon's brilliance -- and wide-ranging knowledge and research -- as evidenced in "Money Is Love.) And of course, beyond my assertion of Condon's extraordinary gift, if you as a reader like your funnybone tickled, then, kid -- this is the place!!

Dr. H. Jon Geis, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, Las Vegas

Money, money, always money,
Is money a new kind of language of love?
Would you talk of money to the Easter bunny?
Does a dove coo money to another dove?

Fill up nine canoesful,
Money is baroque-
The only time it's useful,
Is when you're broke.

-The Keener's Manual

This is one of Richard Condon's best works, and he has written some great ones. "Mile High", 'The Manchurian Candidate," "Prizzi's Honor" and don't forget "Winter Kills". If you are not a fan of Richard Condon, it is only because you have not yet read him. The fantastic erudition, the sly humor, the wordcraft, and the wisdom of a man who has watched the human comedy unfold in front of his own face with bemused aplomb are hallmarks of his work.

I met him once. His only comment about his endeavors was, "Well, I'm not lazy." And indeed he isn't. He put more effort into a book than Proust with a fact checker. His research and his knowledge of the environments he uses/ed for background seem deeply lived-in, so they snap with accuracy. Never a false note. His characters are drawn in both broad caricature, and with a nuance and finesse that show deep understanding of the far reaches and the shortcomings of human nature. The send ups of our cupidity and stupidity are divine. I wish I could do more to tout the books, but only reading him can do justice to the treasures Condon left behind for us to savor. Politics, wine, food, swinish behavior, selfishness, hypocrisy, sex, perversion, high mindedness, art... oh, it's all here. Try Condon... you won't be disappointed.

I am so proud to have known him, even if it was just for a day.

Telebob