Cruel Shoes

As a literary gem, this first Steve Martin book stands out for its ability to provoke many reactions--belly laughs, quiet smiles, wistful ponderings... Sit down in your favorite chair and prepare to satisfy your Inner Child!

A very funny classic Steve Martin! A work of comic genius! Steve Martin's short stories are definately a way to kick back on the weekend and have a good laugh. In one memorable story "some of tubbies flesh flew off and nourished a sunflower." You cannot beat Steve, on the cover of the book he looks pensive in a fedora and tan suit, with a specter smoke cloud above a carefully tilted cigarette, a crooked smile,and reflective sunglasses glinting in the light. You just have to know that it is going to be completely hilarious. If ever you were unsure of soup-folding proceedure, or needed some cruel shoes, or were not knowledgeable on what to do if you call a wrong number...this book is for you. If you have been missing insightful stories on Poodles, shopping men, cows or anything else that's seemingly arbitrary pick up this book. Relax sit back in your chair and pick this up. It's got humor, is well written and lighthearted.

In fourth grade, while my classmates played kickball, I sat by myself on the swings and read Steve Martin's "Cruel Shoes" (heck - I was always picked last anyway!). From the first time I read about "The Day the Dopes Came", I was an instant fan. Martin taught me to look at the world from an absurdist perspective. I no longer cared what my classmates thought of me! They're all a bunch of turds anyway (see Martin's "Turds from Turdsmania" article). Bless you Steve!

Since purchasing this book several years ago, I have referenced it time and again. Indispensable wisdom from a thinking man's comic.

Somewhere in a box at my father's home is a abused beaten up copy of this magnificent text. I see some future historian stumbling over this book, in some distant millennium and wondering what in the hell is going on here. Was this the 20th Century? Looking around at the slobbering, still biting, yackeddy yackeddy misbred poodles that will be inhabiting our poor planet even centuries hence, the discoverer will surely see these dimunations as the true source of all of man's folly, and realize, like Steve Martin so aptly does in his work, that man can only be saved when one sees poodles as good eating. Mr Martin's genius is on display throughout the text. Not even Congressman Henry Waxman could see the even greater danger that is in store for the cigarette smoker.This book clearly reveals how cigarettes can lead, in there folly, to a lip shortage that nobody can truly desire. The absence of this book from current shelves can only be descibed as a national tragedy, with maybe even a conspiracy angle to boot (take note Oliver Stone). Someone must rectify this now (with perhaps an annotated edition (with all of the completely new pictures that the cover claimed were inside), before the bridge to the future is rusting and littered with poodle droppings. The future is at stake, try to remember that. Sincerely, Winslow Homo