If You Can't Say Something Nice

Trillin, Calvin

ISBN 10: 0899195318 / ISBN 13: 9780899195315

Published by First edition, published by Ticknor and Fields, New York, 1987., 1987

About this Item

Very good with very good dust jacket. Dust jacket flaps are glued to endpapers. Dust jacket is bumped along top edges. Tiny ink mark on front fly leaf. 257 pages.

Seller Inventory # 9599

Bibliographic Details

• Title: If You Can't Say Something Nice
• Publisher: First edition, published by Ticknor and Fields, New York, 1987.
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0899195318
• ISBN 13: 9780899195315
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

The nationally syndicated columnist offers a new collection of witticisms, including composing a motto for the Nebraska license plate and plotting the murder of a neighbor who talks about gutter maintenance

Reviews

Trillin's (With All Disrespect, etc.) flair for parodying the mores and foibles of private citizens and public figures alike is showcased in this collection of amusing essays, which first appeared in the Nation and in his syndicated column. Particularly apt are his send-ups on wine snobbery ("It's Coke or Royal Crown with meat, 7-Up or ginger ale with fish, and Dr. Pepper with game"); a specious Oreo cookies promotion claiming that if all the cookies made in the past 75 years were stacked on top of one another, they would go to the moon and back four times ("Would you have to use some kind of glue to hold the cookies together . . . or could you just put an extra smear of cream filling between cookies? What sort of ladder would you stand on?"); and severance pay ("In the world of huge corporations there's nothing more lucrative than being fired well"). The offerings are eclectic: "If you thought I was above commenting on the Washington Post story that Secretary of State George Schultz may have a tattoo of a tiger on his backside, you overestimated me."
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

All of the 63 essays here gathered appeared in the Nation or were distributed through syndication since December, 1984. Readers of Trillin's earlier collections ( Uncivil Liberties , With All Disrespect ) will find in this one precisely what they'd expect: a lively mind, smartly tailored prose, and a crisp point of view. He ranges easily over a variety of topics, few of any great importancethings like yuppies, a 25th wedding anniversary, a neon beer sign. He's never profound, but he's never dull either. One can only guess what might happen if he were to take some big risks, attempt some thornier subjects. That notwithstanding, Trillin enthusiasts will want this book, and others will like it. A.J. Anderson, Graduate Sch. of Library & Information Science, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.