Synopsis
For over a decade his contentious couple named Ralph and Wanda have portrayed the human condition. Here Mr. Leo steps out from the institutional anonymity of his magazine and gives readers not just the best of Ralph and Wanda but a myriad of other subjects.
Reviews
A former writer at Time , Leo developed a following for his satiric pieces for that magazine and other media. Reprinted here are zingers from these sources, aimed at whatever tempted the journalist's pitiless observations on society. His would-be trendy couple, Ralph and Wanda, debate changes wrought on sexual relations by the feminist movement, these notes alternating with articles such as that about America's theft of the Soviet national sport. Leo's attack on "journalese," singling out oxymorons from the Pentagon ("Peacekeeper missiles," "build-down"), calls for laughs, cheers and tears. So does his musing on Ronald Reagan who, he believes, sometimes confused the movies with real life.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The 30 essays that make up Leo's book first appeared in various periodicals, including Time, where Leo was a long-time senior writer. Name the subject--Reagan's memoirs, modern journalistic techniques, middle-aged WASPs, sex in the Eighties--and Leo is sure to extract nonsense, delightful, warming nonsense, out of it. Leo finds it very amusing to poke fun at Anglo-American attitudes, but in so doing he never raises his voice or exhibits a trace of rancor. He does not pose or preach, threaten or demand. He simply shows all-too-human people playing their earnest games, prosecuting their common desires, following their strange fancies, and thinking themselves and their games, desires, and fancies so important. This book is for readers who prefer the subtle touch rather than humor pressed home with the whack of slapstick. K. Jason Sitewell (an imperfect anagram for "Well, it's a joke, son") was the pen name of an anonymous "put-on artist" who contributed to Golf Digest and Saturday Review , of which Norman Cousins was a long-time editor (and may, perhaps, be Sitewell himself). Sitewell's contributions, some of which are compiled here, take the form of letters to the editor, essays, book reviews, and "personals." They range from a not-so-short piece on golf and a tribute to the bagel to a letter on Quebec's secession from Canada and a call to defeat a House resolution. An occasional dash of humor and a variety of unusual "personals" make the book readable, if nothing more. Pass-up-able.
- A.J. Anderson, Graduate Sch. of Lib . & Information Science, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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