Life Sentences for Everybody
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Authors
Mangione, Jerre
Issue Date
1965
Type
Book, Whole
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
A delightful set of thirty-six instant novels. Sentences works in three senses: (1) each story is one sentence long, though there is some cheating through colons and semi-colons; (2) what is delivered here is a set of apothegms or sententiae about life, specifically about character types (each piece is named after a character or family); (3) we are offered here judgments or condemnations, as though these characters were in a court. The stories deserve to be called fables by any good definition, but they are not exactly Aesopic in type. A bit on the racy, sexist side. Mangione is a reduced George Ade. The caricature drawings are lively. The name-invention game here is a matter of hit and miss, I would say. Among the best stories: Johanna Ramp Fatutto (14), Susan Egg (24), Timothy Jezebel (28), Adelia Gloss (40), Matilda Pry (47), and The Ginks (61). Brendan Socket (50) has in it something of the Aesopic story The Lion in Love.
Description
Citation
Publisher
Abelard-Schuman