Art Buchwald (1925–2007)

I really, really enjoyed this book! I wasn't sure if I would but I gave it a try and it was so good! I wanted to be annoyed by his constant name-dropping but he's just such a loveable guy that I just couldn't! Usually the cocky types really bug me--but I really think his cockiness is just a cover for insecurities...he seems like he was a really great guy. (Just read last week that he had passed away). I actually cried at the end because everything turned out so well! :) I especially liked it show more that he made mention of the book, "Best Loved Poems of the American People". This was one of my grandma Betty's favorite books and my mom has found a poem from it for me here and there over the years. show less

A peculiarity of Buchwald's career; while a lot of his books have not aged well, this one is likely to hang on (along with his memoirs of reporting from Paris), because of the fact that he is reporting on something close to him. In this case, his pending death from a variety of complications. It's more or less an account of his final weeks of life, from the point of view of the hospice where he was staying. The humour here is, unlike his political work, authentically funny.

There are times where Art Buchwald was an insufferable bore, and other times when he was actually witty and interesting. The book has elements of both Buchwalds, but luckily it's more the latter than the former. His books of alleged humour haven't held up nearly as well, I think, but this memoir of Paris in the 1950s and early 1960s reads fairly well. There's a lot of name-dropping here, though some of it is tongue in cheek. Some of it might even be true, who knows?

The experience of death, when we know it is coming soon, as opposed to having no known time frame, always changes the quality and character of our goodbyes. Art Buchwald had the dubious luxury of knowing approximately when, but had months more than he expected, prompting people to ask, "Why aren't you dead yet?". He shares his personal views and funny stories as he knowingly appraoaches death. Art Buchwald was one of my all-time favorite columnists and I never missed reading his whole show more article when I saw it. This book meanders a little into the past, perhaps setting records straight and making public amends, and sometimes in more detail than I care to know but that said, this is an oddly comforting book as perhaps only Art Buchwald could have written. After a year of personal upheaval myself, it made me smile and wish him "Bon Voyage", as he says, "Wherever I end up". He is and will be greatly missed by his extended family of readers. show less