This old classic is coming up for discussion in our Williams Court book club. It is truly classic and I can almost see the McGill professor smiling as he thinks up the next episode in the life of the small town, thought to be modelled after Orillia, Ontario, somewhere around 1900. This is humour so dry that it is sometimes necessary to read several pages to fully comprehend it, not the usual one-liners of modern standup. There are rare oneliners: “First of all, there was a telegram of good wishes from the Anglican Lord bishop of the diocese to Mullen, and calling him Dear Brother in Grace. The Mariposa telegraph office is a bit unreliable and it read ‘Dear Brother in Grease’, but that is close enough.”
“And if you remember, too, that these are cultivated girls who have all been to the Mariposa high school and can do decimal fractions, you will understand that an Algerian corsair would sharpen his scimitar at the very sight of them.”
A very despondent bank clerk planning his suicide because of an unrequited love infatuation, wryly finds four different excuses to remain alive in one chapter, then becomes a local hero by interrupting a bank robbery. The lively local gossip mill declares him dead before he shows up with only a missing ear.
Fit, clean reading for any age, there is nothing very profound here, but it is just what we all need at times- a good laugh.
10/10
Thanks, Carolyn.
The Passionate Reader 