Bowl of Cherries

I just finished this amazing comic novel and it's still reverberating in the back of my mind. Erudite, cosmopolitan and witty, if you loved Catch 22 or A Confederacy of Dunces, you will love this book! Author of the new historical novel... [ASIN:1934037397 Judge Fogg]]

... not too sweet, and not too tart; but a delicious mouthful bursting with both. This novel reads as a fun, satirical frolic with plenty of unexpected twists. I found myself avidly enjoying each chapter like a ripe cherry on a late summer's eve. There is a plentitude of $5 words which can lead you off on fun tangents of exploration in your handy dictionary; or like I did, one can underline them and return like a squirrel to a nut for an autumn's eve of scholarly study. So it is that Kaufman indulges the reader with language that so very unfortunately is no longer enjoyed in these rat-race days of terse and abbreviated, instant-messaging intercourse. With such an eloquent use of vivid language, the lucid nonagenerian author dresses English in its Sunday best and parades it, as if to presage us, the younger readers, to rage, rage against the dying of the light and not allow our language to languish to the pathetic destitution of nothing more than mere pulp fiction and text messages. So, enjoy the show! To have a little more fun and learn more about Kaufman (and even Mr. Magoo!), you can visit the NPR website and search for a bowl of cherries to find his Weekend Edition interview with Scott Simon.

I don't think it's any coincedence that a 90-year old reminds me of Vonnegut, but this is a terrific book that a lot of my friends are getting from me for the holidays. Very funny, very satiric, very good.

Social satire in the grand tradition of Voltaire. Written with a vocabulary that has the precision of a surgeon's knife. A book for the cerebrating person.