Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Magic Christian by Terry Southern ISBN: 0-8021-3465-3 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: July, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.64 (14 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Gut-smashingly funny!
Comment: "Every man has a price," says Terry Southern's gonzo big-spender protagonist Guy Grand, and he proceeds to prove this theory with a series of increasingly-hilarious and increasingly-unbelievable pranks. This one's a laugh riot-- the only problem with it is its length. (A good reader will burn through it in under an hour.)
Rating: 5
Summary: This book isn't the usual 6-and-7--it's a 7 or 11all the way
Comment: Roughly ten years before the movie was made, came the book by Terry Southern, a look at the world of Guy Grand, that eccentric billionaire who concocts outrageous schemes in order to prove that everyone has their price and turns the perceptions and worlds of ordinary people upside down in the process. It's okay if one is the audience witnessing those schemes, but quite another if one is on the receiving end, e.g. the Musk and Tallow scents.
The action jets back and forth to Guy and his two aunts the fuzzy-brained Esther and the pert and serious Agnes, and a history of his antics, which is of course the core of the story.
As for the interludes with the aunts and Ginger Horton, the rational Guy, who doesn't seem to miss much, tries to remain aloof, saying the right words in an off-handed way, and really speaking when the subject turns towards anything relating to business.
The dog show involving the panther, the theatre where Guy shows a cheap foreign film instead of a musical, then reshowing the cheap film upside down, violating copyright laws by making his own film inserts in Mrs. Miniver and The Best Years Of Our Lives, the pygmy who became CEO of an accounting firm, and of course, the chaos that takes place aboard the Magic Christian vessel.
The Do-It-Yourself books are something that might actually catch on, assuming there isn't already something like that out on the market. Purists might cringe but that only proves the follies of being a hardcore devotee. The conventionally wise response is, "Hey, it's only a book," or "it's only a movie..." etc.
The healthy satire of the media that Guy promotes, where actors walk off the set after spouting off words saying "I pity the moron whose life is so empty he would look at this" could be used today. I don't watch any contemporary American TV programs and when I see previews or commercial spots for them, that's what I feel, to use the line from All Our Yesterdays: "Anyone who would allow this slobbering pomp and drivel to his home has less sense and taste than the beasts of the field!"
The humdrum of life should be interrupted by some of Grand's schemes. Smashing crackers on the sidewalk with a sledge, now that's something anyone can do, with a borrowed helmet and overalls. And remember, "It's technical."
At 147 pages, The Magic Christian should be a quick and fun read even for today's illiterati, assuming we can get them to turn off the Stupidbowl, Worm Series, or hide their PS2's.
Rating: 2
Summary: Cutesy and obvious
Comment: I just don't get the sixties guys sometimes. Maybe forty years ago pointing out the flaws in the American experience was novel, although coming twenty years after Henry Miller and others, it was probably not that shocking to anyone that payed attention to the various literature. This is a smug book, with its smugness somewhat masked by Southern's cutesy tones and farcical situations that he sets up. Maybe it was groundbreaking then, but it comes off as a bit dated and ineffectual now.
 |
Title: Candy by Terry Southern, Mason Hoffenberg ISBN: 0802134297 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: March, 1996 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes by Terry Southern, George Plimpton ISBN: 0806511672 Publisher: Citadel Trade Pub. Date: January, 1990 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
 |
Title: Blue Movie by Terry Southern ISBN: 0802134661 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: July, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
 |
Title: Now Dig This: The Unspeakable Writings of Terry Southern, 1950-1995 by Nile Southern, Josh Alan Friedman ISBN: 0802138942 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title:The Magic Christian ASIN: B00007GZQI Publisher: Lionsgate/Fox Pub. Date: 21 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $13.03 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
