Pumping Irony: Working Out the Angst of a Lifetime - Hardcover

Kornheiser, Tony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0812924746 ISBN 13: 9780812924749

Publisher: Crown, 1995

Synopsis

Like a kvetching Dave Barry, Washington columnist Tony Kornheiser has that rare curmudgeonly gift of looking at a full glass--and seeing it filled with something he doesn't want to drink. This collection of Tony's wide-ranging commentary covers everything from dieting to bread, from gourmet coffee to Bill Clinton to the sporting world.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

hing Dave Barry, Washington columnist Tony Kornheiser has that rare curmudgeonly gift of looking at a full glass--and seeing it filled with something he doesn't want to drink. This collection of Tony's wide-ranging commentary covers everything from dieting to bread, from gourmet coffee to Bill Clinton to the sporting world.

Reviews

Washington Post syndicated columnist Kornheiser here collects his columns of the past eight years; the best entries are very funny, and the weakest are dull. He puts his worst foot forward with a leaden introduction and the labored piece from which he took the book's title. He then proceeds to such topics as kids, the vicissitudes of contemporary life, flying, driving, scandals in the news, women ogling men and family problems. Well worth the price of admission are his essays on the "Life Coffin," an article that can be used as a living-room bookcase until it is needed for other purposes; a class for fearful airplane passengers, in which confessions by fellow students gave Kornheiser reasons for apprehension he had never thought of before; trendy new coffee bars with coffees that are far beyond the exotic. Fans will enjoy finding out that the Polish alphabet "consists of only seven letters?Z, X, I, Y, K, C and S," and why Kornheiser, in rejecting trendy foods, came to bury fennel not to braise it.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Kornheiser fans will enjoy this collection of his most entertaining columns from the Washington Post, which poke fun at every aspect of modern life from lip rings to bathing-suit anxiety. At the outset, the author confesses his admiration of Dave Barry and his longing to be as popular. He declares his respect even further by claiming to have originally named this collection "The Best of Dave Barry..." in large type splashed across the cover, followed by "...is better than anything in this tepid collection by Tony Kornheiser" in really small print. That self-criticism by an author whose credits extend from a weekday radio show, to ESPN appearances, to articles in Life, Sports Illustrated, and Esquire is just a bit too harsh. This collection is worth a read and a place on the humor shelf of most public libraries.?Joe Accardi, Northeastern Illinois Univ. Lib., Chicago
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Crown
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0812924746
• ISBN 13: 9780812924749
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 299