I often laughed as I read this book, but there were also pieces which did not cause so much as a smile. There are also cartoons and my favorite is the one on page 340 captioned "Touche!" Put it in Google and you will be able to see the cartoon, if you are not familiar with it. ( )

I remember reading all the books of his they had in the library when I was a kid--inspired by the short-running TV show "My World and Welcome to It" which was based on his work.

Amazingly, I found him just as entertaining as I did as a child. The Thurber Carnival is a hodge-podge of essays, stories, and drawings culled over several decades and from several other collections. Some are better than others, of course, and quite a few of them are very dated--unsurprisingly, since the book was originally published in 1945, and compiled at that time from earlier sources.

It doesn't really seem to matter. Even though I can't really relate to the early days of the automobile, it didn't stop me from laughing aloud at "Recollections of a Gas Buggy." Human nature hasn't changed all that much in the past 60 or 70 years.

There are quite a few classic stories in here, including "The Catbird Seat," which is a delicious story of revenge, and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," which I hadn't even realized was Thurber's.

His drawings are just as entertaining, which is even more startling after reading in the biography what poor eyesight he had. With just a few lines, he manages to do the same thing he does in the stories and essays with just a few words.

Most of the humor has to do with human nature--specifically, with the way people communicate, or don't. One of the best (i.e. most hilarious) examples is "What Do You Mean It Was Brillig?" in which he lampoons both his housekeeper's accent and his own misunderstanding of and reaction to it. There's also a darkly humorous story, "The Breaking Up of the Winships," about a couple who divorces over a disagreement about Greta Garbo. Change a few minor details, and these stories are as true today as they were when they were written.

I'm really happy I bought this. Not only was it wonderfully nostalgic, and still entertaining today, but I've got this lovely book of very funny, very short pieces that are easy to share with my family. I don't even begrudge the 3 days it took me to read. ( )

This is a wonderful collection of some of the best humorous writing by James Thurber. I especially recommend The Night the Bed Fell, and The Day the Dam Broke.

Does anyone read Thurber anymore? I don't think many people do, and it's a damn shame, because that gawky misfit of a man wrote some of the greatest stories of the past century. His drawings are loveable, and the stab in his voice is mild (much less brutal than Dorothy Parker's) but penetrating and funny in a way that makes you think and laugh at the same time.

Thurber is an American master who is slipping through the cracks. ( )

A collection of cartoons, short stories, essays and other zany writing (Great poems illustrated, for example) reprinted from Thurber's earlier books. This collection was a constant companion of mine in my childhood. As I grew up, I understood more and more of the irony in these pieces, and appreciated their brilliance even more. My favorites are: The MacBeth Murder Mystery and the Pet Department. The first is about a inveterate murder mystery reader, who can find no mysteries in the bookshop and picks up a copy of Macbeth instead. She proceeds to "solve" the mystery, using modern mystery conventions, including the fact that the obvious suspects couldn't have done it. The Pet Department are drawings, supposedly sent in by bewildered pet owners and questions about their pets condition along with Thurber's diagnosis. If you have read Thurber, this is a great place to start. ( )