Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My annual Spring tonic--wit at its best!, April 12, 1999
I was given a copy of this book about 12 years ago. It has turned out to be one the best gifts I've ever received. Jerome's witty ramblings are the funniest I've ever read. Mark Twain, who I also love to read, comes close to Jerome's style but, in my opinion, is a poor second. Jerome finds humor in the commonplace and the every day occurrences which all of us, even a good 100 years later, can identify with. Starting with his self-diagnosis of every ailment, excepting house-maid's knee, to his singular insights into his friends, self, and surroundings; I never tire of rereading this book. It becomes clear quickly that the dog, Montmorency, is the only one with any sense. Three Men and a Boat always cheers me after a cold, bleak winter. It's the best Spring tonic--I highly recommend an annual dose. I shop now for gifts to give to friends so they can share my enjoyment in this wonderfully humorous and offbeat book. Read, enjoy, and laugh often.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Funny observational humor, November 25, 1999
Humor is very hard to write. Jerome K. Jerome does a fine job in his "Three Men in a Boat" -- it's a light, frothy sort of humor that brings to mind a 60's comedy movie. The characters are irritable and inept, and the things that tick them off (packing luggage, setting up a tent, dealing with women in nature, cooperative rowing) are still very relevant today. For example, people who hate jet-skis can find parallel rants on the steam-powered launches that annoy Jerome and his sailing buddies. The occasional dips into seriousness (English history, a single-mother suicide) take up a net 2 pages total, and don't happen to detract from the overall humor. My favorite line is spoken by Jerome to the overzealous cemetary watchman, who can't believe Jerome doesn't want to view some open tombs: "Leave me immediately or I shall climb over the fence and slay you." The book gets 4 stars only because (like most observational humor) it leaves the mind easily, and doesn't display the unity of meaning, humor and characterization that modern readers expect from a 5 star book. This book is an excellent series of hilarious essays loosely strung together in the form of flashbacks, but it is not a novel per se. One of its greatest achievements is that it is still readable today, quite accessible to a modern audience.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Timeless Humor, October 17, 2001
This has to be one of the funniest books ever written beginning with the opening chapter where the narrator reads a medical book and decides he has every disease in the book. From there, he and his two best friends decide to get away from it all with a boat trip up the Thames River -- and that's the book. It's full of one hilarious episode after another with little side tidbits on the historical places they pass on the Thames. Those few who have found the book dull need to understand that the story is written at the pace of a boat trip and not a television sitcom. It's any vacation where everything goes hilariously wrong and if for once the tent doesn't fall down in a pouring rain or the boat manages to not run into another boat, the narrator remembers another trip and tells the story of carrying an incredibly smelly cheese home--Warning don't read that chapter in public. People will wonder why you're rolling on the ground laughing hysterically. There's also a dog who's idea of being helpful is bringing a dead rat to add to the stew. The only weakness of the book is that I'd like to have seen much more of the dog. On the serious side, Three Men in a Boat proves that humor based on human nature is timeless. Also on the serious side, if you want a good look at how people lived in 1890, this book actually gives a vivid picture, including the nostalgia that the narrator feels for "the good old days". He finds life in 1890 too fast paced and with too many inventions coming on too fast. It makes you wonder at what point people will look back to 2001 as "the good old days".
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