I Smell Esther Williams (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Marianne Faithful and Napoleon's sister have cameos in this outlandish first short-story collection from the author of Et Tu, Babe.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Leyner's brilliantly discontinuous humor invites comparison with William Burroughs.... It's rude, epic shtick that begs to be read aloud to friends and strangers alike -- if only you could figure out where to stop." -- Village Voice

"He is a twisted wizard, a genre-busting virtuoso, working at the outer edge of narrative convention." -- Jay McInerney -- Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (January 31, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679750452
• ISBN-13: 978-0679750451
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #886,451 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A level of genius so high as to be unrecognizable as such, July 5, 2007

By	M. J. Blakley "Greg's Steve Bus, Etc" (Aiken, SC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: I Smell Esther Williams and Other Stories (Paperback)

If you couldn't get through ten pages of William S. Burroughs the one time you tried, if you stared at Andy Kaufmann and wondered why anybody would think what he was doing was comedy, if The Residents produced what is, to you, an offensively pointless mish-mash of sound, then you will certainly not be able to finish this brilliant book. Move on to Leyner's equally excellent easier stuff.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't get me wrong..., January 23, 2000

By	BoyWonder19 (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

I like Mark Leyner, but this book (his first) is way below par. It's obviously juvenilia, dressed up by Vintage after Leyner's success, and recovered from the tiny press (the Fiction Collective, Boulder) who took this unformed, trivial, pretentious book on in the first place. There are a few funny lines and some evocative moments in here, but overall it's not worth the time or money. Work your way back to this one from the books published since Leyner learned how to write.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Beware, November 3, 2000

By	El Kabong - See all my reviews

Don't misunderstand: everything Leyner's done after this first collection is brilliant writing and mandatory reading. But ESTHER WILLIAMS is the most godawful hodgepodge of literary conceits and pratfalls you may ever be unlucky enough to read. Obviously, some episode of satori marked the time between this and his next book, the now-classic MY COUSIN, MY GASTROENTEROLOGIST. I'm being harsher than I should be, perhaps, considering how great a satirist Leyner has become. But even he probably wishes this book would crawl off his resume. Take a pass on ESTHER and go straight to his other four collections.