Customer Reviews

I Only Flunk My Brightest Students: stories from school and real life

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I roared! I wept! I became hysterical! And that was before I read Michael's book! With a bit of "Portnoy's Complaint" and lots of Woody Allenesque moments, Michael's autobiography is a hilarious trip down memory lane - sometimes poignant, mostly hysterically funny, bawdy, and delightful for anyone with a kooky sense of humor. This book provides one of the best descriptions of what we all go through in adolescence as we make at least a feeble effort to become "grown-ups" (whatever that means!). Although the author writes about our generation - the `60s - this book is really for anyone and everyone who wants a to roll on the floor, laughing until the tears come. Enjoy! And don't forget to call your mother!

If you have read Bill Bryson's homage to the 50's - The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - you have to read Marcus' work. This book brings you into the 60's and beyond. This is what life was really like - just about totally nuts. Parents were still naive, teachers were generally asleep at the chalkboard, school administrations were emotionally unequipped to deal with "those hoodlums." And sex, well, there wasn't any. At least most of us weren't getting any but you wouldn't know that to listen to us. Do yourself a big favor and read this book - Marcus has captured the essence of reality in his vignettes of life.

I share the same name, hometown, and schools attended by the author of this hilarious tome, yet I have never met him in real life. I thought that I was funny, until I read some of his finely-crafted memory vignettes from back in the day. These tales will have universal appeal to any boomer who would like to be stimulated to think about their early years with something other than regret. Only a few years in age separate us, so like some of the other reviewers I can visualize many of the people and places that Michael writes about but I don't think this (questionable) privilege will matter at all to readers distant in time and space from where we (allegedly) grew up. Michael has a way with words, to be sure, and much of what he has to say might just sneak up and bite you where it hurts/heals and makes you laugh the most. You will get more than twenty bucks worth of laughs, so enjoy!

I've been reading "Flunk" in bed. Every time I start laughing, there's my husband peering over my shoulder wanting to know what's so funny. This book is! While I can't attest to Michael's college and beyond escapades, the stuff he includes about our elementary, junior and senior high school experiences is absolutely not made up or even embellished. Everything from "Stephen Shmuck and John Belbusti report to the Freedom Shrine Room" to Crazy Frahse foofing kids in the halls, it really, really happened. Thanks, Michael, for capturing it all in great hilarious and poignant detail. Your wife is a saint!

Having traveled through high school with Michael, the incidents in this book are highly personal--It was like being there again. But one need not have gone to the same school to appreciate the mild insanity that Michael brings back to life. I found myself rolling with laughter throughout. If you liked Animal House, do yorself a favor and get this gem.

In the beginning of the book, Marcus talks about his "literary gods," including radio talker/author Jean Shepherd.

Marcus has learned a lot from Shep, and is a fantastic, hysterically funny, story teller. He has an amazing memory for details that add realism to the stories, and some of the surprise endings will take your breath away.

This is a great book, especially for baby-boomers who remember, or don't remember, the 1960s. I never realized that sex, drugs and rock-n-roll could be so funny.

I'm the author's wife. There's probably a lot about me in the book, but I'm not really sure. Michael would not let me read the book before it was published because he was afraid that I'd want him to change what he said about me.

If you read the book and find bad things about me, please don't believe everything. We've been married for 37 years, and Michael would not have stayed with me if I was as bad as he probably said I am.

However, if he said nice things about me, it's OK to believe them.

If he said I don't like to cook, that part is true.

If he said I have trouble making up mind, that's true, too; but sometimes Michael has the same problem.

If he said I'm late when we have to go places, it's because I take better baths than he does.

If he told you why he picked me to marry instead of two other women he was considering, he may not have given the real reason. I hope not.

Someday I may write my own book to get even with him.

While there may be somewhat of a conflict of interest in writing this review (being the author's nephew), I still know a good book when I read one.

"I Only Flunk My Brightest Students..." is full of stories that range from funny to downright hilarious. It leads one to believe that Michael Marcus simply lifted the stories from a week of different sitcoms on TV, but I can verify that these stories are true... I've been hearing them for years.

You're not going to regret buying the book, and you'll probably read it more than once.