Pages: 626
Original date of publication: 1944 (original collection;
additions made to later editions)
My copy: 2006 (Penguin)
Why I decided to read:
How I acquired my copy: Phoenix airport bookstore, December
2012
Dorothy Parker was famous for her satirical wit, a founding
member of the Algonquin Round Table, and one of the earliest writers for the
New Yorker. She was once arrested for protesting the execution of the murderers
Sacco and Vanzetti. Later, she pursued screenwriting in Hollywood and was later
blacklisted there for her involvement in left-wing politics. She was married
three times, twice to the same man; and had four suicide attempts, none
successful. After her death, her ashes lay for 21 years on a shelf at a funeral
home and then in the office of a Wall Street law firm, before she was finally
buried at the headquarters of the NAACP. Parker loved one-liners and word play,
and this is a compilation of short stories, magazine articles, letters,
interviews, book and theater reviews, and poetry written by Parker over a
period of roughly 60 years.
Although Parker deplored the idea of writing “like a woman,”
in her short fiction she often focused on themes that women frequently write
about. Her short stories tend to focus on the relationships between the sexes,
and the differences that arise out of relationships between men and women. She
was really good at watching people and listening to them, which is how she can
write an entire story in dialogue and still get her message across by
implication. Two of my favorite stories among the ones collected here are “Big
Blonde,” the story of a young woman’s alcoholic decline (based on personal
experience, which makes all the more powerful); and “The Game,” in which a
young married couple have a dinner party at which a game (resembling Charades),
innocent at first, is played. This last story highlights the fact that there’s a
hidden meaning (or multiple meanings) for every action.
But her stories don’t really capture what Dorothy Parker
might have been like as a person; for that, you have to look at her other works
for that famous, biting wit. In her book reviews, Parker reviews not only the
book but the author as well (“Dashiell Hammett is as American as a sawed-off
shotgun.”). Even when she’s trying to review other people, Parker is pretty
self-deprecatory; so she’ll interject her reviews and articles with personal
anecdotes that poke fun at her own age, for example. I love an author who can
roll with the punches, so to speak, and someone who can make fun of themselves gets
extra points with me. In all, this collection is an impressive representation
of the oeuvre of Dorothy Parker’s work, life, and personality.
Comments
“It is that word ‘hummy,’ my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader Fwowed up.”