Art BuchwaldCríticas

I really, really enjoyed this book! I wasn't sure if I would but I gave it a try and it was so good! I wanted to be annoyed by his constant name-dropping but he's just such a loveable guy that I just couldn't! Usually the cocky types really bug me--but I really think his cockiness is just a cover for insecurities...he seems like he was a really great guy. (Just read last week that he had passed away). I actually cried at the end because everything turned out so well! :) I especially liked it that he made mention of the book, "Best Loved Poems of the American People". This was one of my grandma Betty's favorite books and my mom has found a poem from it for me here and there over the years.

A peculiarity of Buchwald's career; while a lot of his books have not aged well, this one is likely to hang on (along with his memoirs of reporting from Paris), because of the fact that he is reporting on something close to him. In this case, his pending death from a variety of complications. It's more or less an account of his final weeks of life, from the point of view of the hospice where he was staying. The humour here is, unlike his political work, authentically funny.

There are times where Art Buchwald was an insufferable bore, and other times when he was actually witty and interesting. The book has elements of both Buchwalds, but luckily it's more the latter than the former. His books of alleged humour haven't held up nearly as well, I think, but this memoir of Paris in the 1950s and early 1960s reads fairly well. There's a lot of name-dropping here, though some of it is tongue in cheek. Some of it might even be true, who knows?

Retrieved a record: Bibliographic match uncertain.

Material refinado e super actual. Foi escrito há meio século, mas parece que retrata eventos ocorridos nos dias de hoje.

This book spans about four years and is written as a conversation between Roger and Stella Folger, a couple happily married for 40 years. The interesting thing about the relationship is that Stella is dead. She regularly calls Roger from her “pink princess phone” from Heaven. Unbeknownst to those of us still here on earth, Heaven is made up of a series of luxury hotels and spas and when you get there you are given three wishes. Stella’s first wish, obviously, is to stay in touch with her widowed husband. While this sounds touching, it also leads to all kinds of complications in Roger’s life. And even in Heaven, news arrives with new arrivals and rumours abound. Because of this Stella enlists her group of friends in Heaven and decides that she needs to make it her personal mission to find Roger a new wife. Written with his typical wry humour this is an unashamed, unabashed commentary on marriage, children, family dysfunction and the enduring power of love.

I never cared for Art Buchwald's syndicated column or style of humor, but his memoir of living in Paris from the late 1940's to early 1960's is a treat to read. Lively, engaging, sometimes funny, and sometimes more serious. Lots of name dropping, most of it in a nice way. Good photo section. I enjoyed it a lot.

The experience of death, when we know it is coming soon, as opposed to having no known time frame, always changes the quality and character of our goodbyes. Art Buchwald had the dubious luxury of knowing approximately when, but had months more than he expected, prompting people to ask, "Why aren't you dead yet?". He shares his personal views and funny stories as he knowingly appraoaches death. Art Buchwald was one of my all-time favorite columnists and I never missed reading his whole article when I saw it. This book meanders a little into the past, perhaps setting records straight and making public amends, and sometimes in more detail than I care to know but that said, this is an oddly comforting book as perhaps only Art Buchwald could have written. After a year of personal upheaval myself, it made me smile and wish him "Bon Voyage", as he says, "Wherever I end up". He is and will be greatly missed by his extended family of readers.

humorous, w/ moments of poignancy, wisdom, great read, how to face life and win.

I suppose Mr. Buchwald is just too flippant for me. He jokes about death and dying. I suppose at times it can be funny and surely relived his stress but I can't help but feel sorry for him.½

Touching and laugh-out-loud funny. We should all be so beloved as Art.

Very touching book.
Displays Art Buchwald's courage, humor and self-less sharing with others about what its like to be in a hospice setting, facing and accepting his death coming around the bend.

Columns from the middle of the Reagan years. Perhaps I'll enjoy them more in 20 years when I'm struggling to remember what the era was like.½

A collection of Buchwald's columns from the early Reagan years. Buchwald is overrated and lazily sticks to a formula that works (sort of) for him, but there is an occasional nugget of humor here. The rest are useful as reminders of the times.½

Art Buchwald's memoirs of childhood and adolescence. For a funny man, he did not have a funny childhood. He and his siblings were sheltered in various orphanages when his mother was taken away shortly after he was born. At seventeen he ran away and joined the marines, and ended up in Paris on the G.I. Bill. A fascinating memoir, superior to his columns.

Art Buchwald's memoirs of his time in Paris from age 22 in 1948, landing a job with the Paris Herald Tribune, writing a column "Paris After Dark", marrying and doing what his foster childhood never prepared him for: starting a family. Better than his columns, not as good as Russell Baker's memoirs. Illustrated with photographs.½

More of the same from Art Buchwald, this one covering the Carter years and the Reagan-Carter campaign.½

More of the same from Art Buchwald. These cover the aftermath of Watergate and the Ford years.½

Art Buchwald is good at his particular style of humor, although there are others who are better (Russell Baker, for one) - I just don't like the style very much. He has found a formula that he never deviates from; this book (and his others) is primarily useful as a reminder of the times, in this case the darkest times of Watergate.½

Art Buchwald is a more popular humorist/columnist than his talent warrants. He writes clever, shallow topical columns that resonate much more at the time than they do on re-reading years later. Still, the columns are useful tools for recalling the mood and events of a particular time, and are somewhat entertaining.½

2

Title While Reagan Slept
Author Art Buchwald
Edition reprint
Publisher , 1984
ISBN 0449127621, 9780449127629