- Paperback: 189 pages
- Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press (Jan 1 1994)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0941702367
- ISBN-13: 978-0941702362
- Product Dimensions: 2.2 x 1.4 x 0.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 290 g
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Twice weekly for 10 years, Jack Zimmerman has penned a bittersweet life-in-the-burbs column called "Loose Change" for the Elmhurst, Ill., Press. Fans of Dave Barry will recognize the Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist's tone in this compilation of columns that cast a caustic glance at family life, career struggles and personal growth. While Zimmerman, a man for whom "success is owning all new underwear," shares Barry's charming wit and celebration of the mundane, he's not quite as likable. Here is a man who worries not about whether the glass is half empty or half full but "about washing it when those idiots are done with their stupid philosophical discussions." His comparisons of Orlando to "a large, moist boil in central Florida" and rap artists' gestures as "the Hunchback of Notre Dame dialing a telephone" produce laughs, but after a while Zimmerman's middle-age whining grows tiresome. He extols old movie theaters, marching bands and other things of the past, while vacillating between self-deprecation and self-congratulation. Lost in the conversion from newspaper columns to chapter-book format are spontaneity and continuity, while a tendency to recycle jokes becomes apparent. There are many far less competent writers than Zimmerman, and Elmhurst is fortunate to have "Loose Change," but that's about all this collection adds up to.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Collected from Zimmerman's twice-weekly column in the Elmhurst Press, these pieces ring with the humor and pathos of life in a Chicago suburb. He reminisces about the family's move from the city to Elmhurst and his own start in journalism, as the bulletin editor for the local Lions club (a post he accepted only because Tail-Twister was already taken). Zimmerman reports on, or whines amusingly about, how a family pledge of no TV for a week is hard on a work-at-home dad, as is a wife's business trip. More sensitive than Dave Barry, and just as funny. Denise Perry Donavin
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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3.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
3.0 out of 5 stars
Worth reading, Feb 25 2011
By Cherie D. Lyon "Selkie" - Published on Amazon.com
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This review is from: Ten Thousand Years in the Suburbs (Paperback)
This is a wry, sometimes satirical look at life as a columnist in the Chicago burbs. Sometimes a bit pedestrian for my tastes, but an enjoyable book overall.
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