Brig Berthold
This story made me emotional nearly from the start. Not all positive. Lots of truly funny moments but most of it was an alignment with the main character. Not sure if I'm an old soul or if the concerns are universal but I was relating to a 75-year-old man along his frsught spiritual and existential journey.
I tried to read this years ago and found it laborious to the point of apathy. This time was different. Maybe it was my military service. Maybe the amount of cynicism I've contracted since that first attempt. Or maybe it's just dumb luck, but I found this book more delightful this time around.
Not entirely delightful. Some parts swing into the realm of meandering and uninteresting but on the whole this was enjoyable.
The parts that were hilarious were 100% slap-your-knee funny. Lots of it is dark. It's all dry and the satire bites hard. I can see myself referencing this in many ways in the future and recommending it to the right person will be a joy.
Don't sleep on this. Among the best short stories I've ever experienced.
This is a quirky, captivating, completely charming story. The pacing is excellent. The words flow beautifully. Nuggets of life wisdom dominate but aren't overstated. The writing is superb and accessible. The characters are loveable and complex in spite of the abbreviated form. The narrative is unpredictable. What more could you want?
I'm not buying it! Without revealing anything, I'll say first that the “punchline” felt shallow. But the real issue was, at one point, I noticed an incredibly overt reference to another extremely popular mystery. Then the author, through dialog, wove the name of that mystery into the narrative as though admitting the blatant derivation forgave them. That just felt icky and cheap.
