Thick As Thieves: A Brother, a Sister--a True Story of Two Turbulent Lives by Steve Geng  (4)
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
If there is such a thing as a writer's writer, then the late, beloved Veronica Geng was a humorist's humorist. Geng set herself complicated objects of satire much like poets might challenge themselves to write in an especially difficult form. In the title story, for instance, she riffs on a Village Voice clipping that announced, "This may be the only time in history in which the words 'Mr. Reagan' and 'read Proust' will appear in the same sentence." The resulting sketch, naturally, uses the terms "Mr. Reagan" and "read Proust" in every sentence, with pleasingly surreal results. Contrived? Certainly--but that's the point. A virtuoso mimic, Geng thrived on unlikely juxtapositions. She could reproduce the thickest academese as skillfully as baseball commentary, corporate doublethink, or the prose rhythms of Henry James--even, perhaps preferably, all four at once. (She was also not above a really stunningly odiferous pun--as in "My Mao," for instance, when the Great Leader pleads with his lover, "Please don't squeeze the Chairman.") Here is LBJ baiting an elderly George Bernard Shaw; Flannery O'Connor trading love letters with S.J. Perelman; Richard Nixon tapes reviewed à la Rolling Stone. And who could forget the Eliot pastiche from "Teaching Poetry Writing to Singles"?
From Publishers Weekly
This collection of short satiric pieces comprises the oeuvre of the late Geng, a writer and editor for the New Yorker from 1976 to 1993. A compilation of two previously published collections, Partners and Love Trouble Is My Business, as well as newer work, this book confirms Geng as one of the most brilliant and encompassing satirists of the last few decades, providing readers unfamiliar with her writing with a concise volume of her caustic wit. Geng skewers the media, literature, sports and economics, but she's at her best when tackling political topics. From imagining the Nixon tapes as though they were a record being reviewed in the Village Voice to a Yankees trade of Bucky Dent for Republican Jack Kemp, Geng's pieces are wickedly smart, whimsically structured and multilayered. Taking a clipping or quote as inspiration, Geng free-associates to flesh out the contours of her signature diatribes. An interesting addition to the volume, as well as its one inconsistency, is an addendum tacked onto the end of each piece of Love Trouble Is My Business explaining its origin. Many of these function as self-consciously clear windows into Geng's thought processes and her friends' input (most notably, Ian Frazier, who also wrote the introduction), as well as hints of the climate of the New Yorker during the end of William Shawn's reign. The collected work of this master of "the epigrammatic genre" is a satisfying treat.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
If there is such a thing as a writer's writer, then the late, beloved Veronica Geng was a humorist's humorist. Geng set herself complicated objects of satire much like poets might challenge themselves to write in an especially difficult form. In the title story, for instance, she riffs on a Village Voice clipping that announced, "This may be the only time in history in which the words 'Mr. Reagan' and 'read Proust' will appear in the same sentence." The resulting sketch, naturally, uses the terms "Mr. Reagan" and "read Proust" in every sentence, with pleasingly surreal results. Contrived? Certainly--but that's the point. A virtuoso mimic, Geng thrived on unlikely juxtapositions. She could reproduce the thickest academese as skillfully as baseball commentary, corporate doublethink, or the prose rhythms of Henry James--even, perhaps preferably, all four at once. (She was also not above a really stunningly odiferous pun--as in "My Mao," for instance, when the Great Leader pleads with his lover, "Please don't squeeze the Chairman.") Here is LBJ baiting an elderly George Bernard Shaw; Flannery O'Connor trading love letters with S.J. Perelman; Richard Nixon tapes reviewed à la Rolling Stone. And who could forget the Eliot pastiche from "Teaching Poetry Writing to Singles"?
Let us go then, you and me,As a genre, this sort of literary diversion is never going to make anyone rich; but reading these pieces gives the sensation of watching someone do precisely what she enjoys. There are times, in fact, when you can feel Geng's sentences go positively giddy with joy. "It's my business to love trouble," she writes, in an afternote to the title piece--and a better statement of humor's mission would be difficult to find. --Mary Park
When the weekend is spread out for us to see
Like a roommate bombed out of his gourd on the pool table....
Oh, do not ask, "You said you were who?
Let us go to the free luau.
From Publishers Weekly
This collection of short satiric pieces comprises the oeuvre of the late Geng, a writer and editor for the New Yorker from 1976 to 1993. A compilation of two previously published collections, Partners and Love Trouble Is My Business, as well as newer work, this book confirms Geng as one of the most brilliant and encompassing satirists of the last few decades, providing readers unfamiliar with her writing with a concise volume of her caustic wit. Geng skewers the media, literature, sports and economics, but she's at her best when tackling political topics. From imagining the Nixon tapes as though they were a record being reviewed in the Village Voice to a Yankees trade of Bucky Dent for Republican Jack Kemp, Geng's pieces are wickedly smart, whimsically structured and multilayered. Taking a clipping or quote as inspiration, Geng free-associates to flesh out the contours of her signature diatribes. An interesting addition to the volume, as well as its one inconsistency, is an addendum tacked onto the end of each piece of Love Trouble Is My Business explaining its origin. Many of these function as self-consciously clear windows into Geng's thought processes and her friends' input (most notably, Ian Frazier, who also wrote the introduction), as well as hints of the climate of the New Yorker during the end of William Shawn's reign. The collected work of this master of "the epigrammatic genre" is a satisfying treat.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
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Inside This Book Citations: This book cites 18 books | 1 book that cites this book Explore: Citations | Concordance | Text Stats Key Phrases - SIPs: jacket copy, sex party Key Phrases - CAPs: New York, Saturday Night Live, White House, United States, Gilbert Long (more) Browse Sample Pages: Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | |