Side Effects

As a long time admirer & fan of Woody Allen, I was delighted to see this book available to buy and it arrived well within the stated time. I've only read a few pages so far, but some of it make me laugh out loud, and I can't wait to read more, especially since we've had an arupt change in the weather!

Side splitting stuff if you like surreal humour

Really good , funny , interesting . Changed my life for a matter of 15 minutes.

Doniol

Classic

Exellent

This collection of short stories, essays and sketches written by Woody Allen during the late 1970s and published in 1981 is a mixed, but on the whole, satisfying, and frequently hilarious, read (running to around 160 pages). Throughout the 17 entries in the book, Allen (as is his wont) has peppered the writing with many of his trademark one-liners, and, even though one obviously loses the added bonus (for Allen fans) of seeing the man deliver the lines, there is more than enough here to keep the face distorted into a near constant smirk.Not everything here is intended to be wholly comic, however, and in the entries The Shallowest Man, an engaging tale of deception between 'friends', and Retribution, a table-turning tale of a man's obsession with his girlfriend's mother, Allen conjures up highly readable material, which suggests he may have been able to pursue a non-comic literary career should he have chosen to do so. Of the other entries, my favourites are The Kugelmass Episode, in which Allen's protagonist travels back in time to date Emma Bovary (and which reminds me conceptually of Allen's film The Purple Rose Of Cairo), The UFO Menace, in which Allen lampoons the UFO phenomenon, and Fabrizio's: Criticism and Response, in which Allen parodies critics (film or otherwise) by reference to products sold in an Italian restaurant (reminding me of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's - as Derek and Clive - hilarious sketch The Critics).Not side-splittingly funny therefore, but well worth reading for Allen fans. One of my favourite lines comes from Allen's philosophising in My Speech to the Graduates: 'Am I my brother's keeper? Yes. Interestingly, in my case I share that honour with the Prospect Park Zoo'.

In each story Woody Allen goes on a stylistic adventure. And in each adventure a bunch of ridiculous things, that will make you smack yourself on the forehead, happen.I advice you to get  The Complete Prose  which contains this book and two books of the same kind.