She Treads Softly: I'd Rather Not

Sunday, September 10, 2023

I'd Rather Not

I'd Rather Not by Robert Skinner
9/19/23; 176 pages
Steerforth Press

I'd Rather Not by Robert Skinner is a highly recommended collection of fourteen essays/stories.

Skinner, from Australia, is extremely funny at times and entertaining throughout. I laughed out loud several during some stories, while others were enjoyable, although perhaps not as genuinely humorous to me. As I was reading this collection it did seem that citizens of Australia might appreciate all of these stories more than I would. Other readers should appreciate musings about his job history and other adventures. This collection can be read all at once or one at a time.

Some highlights (not quotes, modified) that had me laughing in tears include: a remark about holding racism against the Swiss; leadership defined as when you to jump in front of a pack of charging camels after being told to; needing money from a first magazine issue to pay for the second being a Ponzi scheme; people compared to pack animals who need to know their place to thrive (still laughing over the context and complete paragraph); listing his reason for visiting a country as "Idiot." This is a quick, easy, entertaining collection with a gorgeous book cover on the edition from Steerforth.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Steerforth Press via Edelweiss.

No comments:

Post a Comment

John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.