|
| It Takes a Village Idiot : A Memoir of Life After the City | 
 enlarge | Author: Jim Mullen
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $2.78
You Save: $12.17 (81%)
New (16) Used (30) from $2.78
Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 640998
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: Excellent condition: spine tight, pages clean. No marks or tears. Very minor shelf wear. NOT a library book or remainder. Great books and service from small seller.
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Finalist for the 2001 Thurber Prize for American Humora Rocky Mountain News (Denver) Best Book of the Year Millions of people dream of abandoning the city routine for a simple country life. Jim Mullen was not one of them. He loved his Manhattan existence: parties, openings, movie screenings. He could walk to hundreds of restaurants, waste entire afternoons at the Film Forum, people-watch from his window. Then, one day, calamity. His wife quits smoking and buys a weekend house in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York -- in a tiny town diametrically opposed to Manhattan in every way. Slowly, however, the man who once boasted, "Life is just a cab away," begins to warm to the place -- manure and compost and strangers who wave and all -- and to embrace the kind of life that once gave him the shakes.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 A super fun book May 25, 2001
18 out of 20 found this review helpful
I read this book in one afternoon. Like many others we too have had dreams of a fantasy "country house". Like the authors wife, we have made forays in Northern California to look for such a dreamplace. But luckily, everything here is either five hours away or costs three quarters of million dollars. So instead I read books like Jim Mullen's and feel smug about not having actually gonr and done the "fool" thing. This book actually has a great story, progresses beautifully, is very funny and is an all-around pleasure to read. If you like humourous books about suburban/urban life then you will love this book.
 Laughing Out Loud April 20, 2001
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
Jim Mullen (known for his ascerbic and clever "Hot Sheet" column in Entertainment Weekly magazine) has written a very, very funny account of his indoctrination into a rural community in upstate New York. Mullen and spouse experience the horrors and, ultimately, the joys of life outside the crowded, dirty, and crime-ridden Big Apple when they buy a weekend home. The culture clashes between uber-urbanite (Mullen) and the farming community makes "Green Acres" look like an O'Neill drama. I read it in one sitting and couldn't stop laughing. I hope there is a sequel.
Good-natured humor and light social commentary June 18, 2005
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Journalist Jim Mullen presents this delightfully droll look at the culture clash that ensues when a couple of longtime Manhattanites (the author and his wife) buy a rundown farmhouse in upstate New York. The opening chapters feature plenty of laughs as Mullen very self-consciously details his disdain for the country and its manifold flaws, all in good fun, of course. Speaking as a typical New Yorker, Mullen suggests that, "Upstate is to New York City what Canada is to the United States - a great, empty space to the north that most people are quite happy to know nothing about". But after his wife gives up smoking and decides she needs something to do with her hands, Mullen dutifully accompanies her to "a town that looks as if the Unabomber were the head of the planning board" and their new dream house in the country. Its dilapidated condition comes as quite a shock to its unwilling owner: "The bathroom combined all the worst features of Appalachian and European plumbing in one convenient spot. Why they brought this toilet indoors one can only guess. Keeping up with the Clampetts, no doubt". The friendly neighbors, the silent nights, the desultory dress code, the local shopping alternatives all hit our new homeowner like the smell of the fresh cow manure.
But Mullen's story is by no means one-sided: as his wife succeeds in dragging him off to the country on a more and more frequent basis, we see our narrator undergo a fascinating transformation. Having learned the sagacity of country customs, his barbs turn against the ignorant city-dwellers, who he now sees are just as provincial in their own way. The humorous highlight here is when some friends from the City come to visit for a weekend, providing the denoument to a running joke about turning the barn into a guest house. But the almost poetic passage where he favorably compares the view out his front window with a Monet canvas is truly enthralling, and assures us that the writer is indeed seeing the world through fresh eyes again. Lots of good-natured humor, light social commentary, and genuine Americana.
Very enjoyable! March 13, 2002
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
I picked this book up after having read a few stinkers, and I felt so grateful because it's truly enjoyable. Jim Mullen is very funny, his observations and comments are so comical, and he often had me laughing out loud. He also handles some more serious, or sad, issues with a touching sensitivity that doesn't stray from the wry humor, but makes his heartfelt point (without beating us over the head, thank you). Despite the premise, this story is an original. Love his wife. Love his neighbors. Hope he is working on a follow-up as we speak.
Country Life as Rehab July 11, 2005
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
After the brief period of time it took to read this tale, I'm not surprised it found its way into my hands. This is not only a story I "get," (couple flees city for a life in the country) it's full of a self-deprecating and sarcastic wit I welcome when reading memoirs.
Jim Mullen, a humor columnist best known for his "Hot Sheet" in Entertainment Weekly, portrays Manhattan life as addiction. Addiction, for example, to non-stop action, Broadway plays, gallery openings, ethnic restaurants and The New York Times. The symptoms include immunity to noise and smells, and they lead to chain-smoking and excessive spending at The Sharper Image. He's hooked. It's his wife, Sue, who takes the lead and buys a farm three hours northwest of the city in the Catskills, and drags him along for what turn out to be rehabilitative weekends. As the weekends grow from two days to five and then finally full time, he gives up smoking, takes up bicycling and then learns about everything from growing giant pumpkins to the inner workings of a septic system. One realizes he has come full circle when he describes a dewy spider web as the prettiest thing he's ever seen and recognizes a "flatlander" in the garden store. While observing this newer version of the village idiot, he rolls his eyes and wonders if that's how he was when he first entered (the fictional town of) Walleye.
The writing is original and funny, informal without being glib, irreverent without being vulgar. For anyone who enjoys well-written memoirs--particularly those of the city-mouse, country mouse variety--put this on your list. Also recommend: "Fifty Acres and a Poodle."
Michele Cozzens, Author of A Line Between Friends and The Things I Wish I'd Said.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
