|
| It Takes a Village Idiot : A Memoir of Life After the City | 
 enlarge | Author: Jim Mullen
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy Used: $2.52
You Save: $14.43 (85%)
New (19) Used (32) from $2.52
Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 491438
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.4
ISBN: 0743218795
Dewey Decimal Number: 974.738043092
EAN: 9780743218795
ASIN: 0743218795
Publication Date: July 16, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: * Item in good condition- Typical Used Book and at a great price! * We carefully inspected this * Great customer service * Satisfaction Guaranteed!
|
| Customer Reviews:
 It Takes a Sense of Humor May 12, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I grabbed this book because the title made me think it would be witty and fun. What do you know - for once I was right! "It Takes A Village Idiot" hilariously describes the changes in the author's life after his wife decides to buy an old farmhouse in the Catskills so she'll be busy enough to quit smoking. And so begins the author's introduction to rural life, as this NYC couple embarks on the first of many weekend drives upstate.
Mr. Mullen describes his gradual transformation from city mouse to country mouse with laughs on every page, with subjects ranging from shopping at Home Depot to Flatlander "guest insensitivity". What makes it delightful is that he's able to do so without snobbery or ridicule. His approach remains good-natured throughout, and his descriptions are easy to visualize.
Wherever one lives, "Village Idiot" is likely to make the reader take a renewed look at the surroundings. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book to anyone.
 City folk turned mutant country killers May 12, 2007
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
I was enjoying It Takes a Village Idiot up until page 183 when suddenly, outta no where, Jim & Sue turn into cruel vicious killers.
"Patrolling the perimeter (of their garden) one day" Sue spotted a woodchuck down by the barn and yelled for me to come help. I grabbed the first thing I could find--my five-iron-and ran down there.
We had him cornered and I started clubbing it. It was like something out of Goodfellas. Each smack made a sickening thump, but the thing wouldn't stop twitching. I didn't want it to suffer (yeah right. can you believe that?), but I couldn't seem to finish it off.
Finally I came down with a mighty stroke right on its head. Woodchuck blood splattered all over me, my shirt, my pants, my face. But it stopped moving."
I don't know about you but that makes me ill. How cold blooded can you be? To physically beat something to death. Woodchucks = Marmots = Groundhogs
All they had to do was lower that fence they put up around the garden (to keep deer out), a foot or two below ground. Where's their brains. That's what I did. It was plain common sense. When you see something digging under your fence--lower it!
Heck! with the money they had they could of poured a two foot concrete wall below their fencing. I used rocks and junked bricks.
Then on page 206 there's this
"On the way to the store, we passed a fly-covered deer carcass on the shoulder of the road. Sue looks at it unsympathetically and says, One down, three hundred thousand to go." " Ouuwee where'd she get all this hate from? What an ugly person she turned out to be.
Then they turned into arrogant rich country snobs, belittling everyone who does not live/think as they now do. What an about face. In the beginning Jim and Sue Mullen seemed like OK people but in the end you see that they really aren't.
 Funny October 29, 2002
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book just oozes sarcasm. No, wait, it GUSHES...Mullen is the writer of the "Hot Sheet" in Entertainment Weekly magazine. As you can imagine, this isn't exactly serious literature, but if you need a break from everything, this book is perfect. It's only about 200 easy-to-read pages, and there's a belly laugh awaiting you at about every third page (and several chuckles in between). Mullen, a die-hard Manhattanite, goes through a sea change in his life when his wife buys a farm in the Catskills "because she quit smoking and needed something to do with her hands."
Hilarious and so real August 29, 2001
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
City boy and wife move to the country (well, just on the weekends--at first), experience culture shock, go through a transition period, wind up loving the country and moving there permanently. Heard it or seen it all before, right? Well, never mind that, this is a funny, funny book. Although the actual town is fictionalized, and I'm sure many events were also fictionalized or exaggerated, this book has the ring of hilarious truth. I was expecting this to be a lot like the movie "Funny Farm" with Chevy Chase, but this is much funnier and much more true to life. Plus, it brings a particular geographical area along with the accompanying mindset of the residents to life. So all the time you're laughing, you're getting educated as well. Highly recommended for light reading on a lazy afternoon.
I know EXACTLY what he means!!! September 16, 2001
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I bought the book because there are two places I absolutely love... the south of France and Upstate New York. I have read all of Peter Mayle's books on Provence, so it only made sense for me to read Jim Mullen's book. Honestly, I wasn't expecting alot, but boy... this book is an absolute riot!!! My wife kept hearing me laugh out loud from the other room and thought I was losing my mind!!! If you laughed reading Mayle's books, you're going to experience severe stomach cramps from laughing so hard while reading Mullen's book. The best part for me was the point in the book when I figured out what town he was really in!!! I won't state the name of the town, but it ryhmes with Walleye. My parents have a vacation farm in the very same town and I spend MANY weekends there!!! I couldn't believe it and it made the book all the more hilarious. If you've moved to upstate New York, planning to or just want to spend a weekend to try it out, this book will split your sides... practically guaranteed.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
