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Rating: 
Summary: Amusing, But Not Much More
Review: "Roll over, Ralph Waldo Emerson!" the bookjacket of my copy of REFLECTIONS IN A JAUNDICED EYE exclaims. "The American essay has a new monarch." Unfortunately, the hyperbole isn't remotely true. While Florence King is undeniably erudite and witty, her essays are fairly insubstantial, and tend not to leave a very strong impression after they've been read. They're certainly not worth reading more than once. While she's no Emerson, perhaps King is a second-rate Mencken. But then again, even that one's debatable (btw I enjoyed her WITH CHARITY TOWARD NONE: A FOND LOOK AT MISANTHROPY considerably more).
Rating:
Summary: Amusing, But Not Much More
Review: "Roll over, Ralph Waldo Emerson!" the bookjacket of my copy of REFLECTIONS IN A JAUNDICED EYE exclaims. "The American essay has a new monarch." Unfortunately, the hyperbole isn't remotely true. While Florence King is undeniably erudite and witty, her essays are fairly insubstantial, and tend not to leave a very strong impression after they've been read. They're certainly not worth reading more than once. While she's no Emerson, perhaps King is a second-rate Mencken. But then again, even that one's debatable (btw I enjoyed her WITH CHARITY TOWARD NONE: A FOND LOOK AT MISANTHROPY considerably more).
Rating:
Summary: Amusing, But Not Much More
Review: "Roll over, Ralph Waldo Emerson!" the bookjacket of my copy of REFLECTIONS IN A JAUNDICED EYE exclaims. "The American essay has a new monarch." Unfortunately, the hyperbole isn't remotely true. While Florence King is undeniably erudite and witty, her essays are fairly insubstantial, and tend not to leave a very strong impression after they've been read. They're certainly not worth reading more than once. While she's no Emerson, perhaps King is a second-rate Mencken. But then again, even that one's debatable (btw I enjoyed her WITH CHARITY TOWARD NONE: A FOND LOOK AT MISANTHROPY considerably more).
Rating: 
Summary: the marvelous misanthrope
Review: Florence King has a winning way with words and a rapier sharp wit; a rare soul who lives and writes by her own set of rules, few subjects are spared her criticism, as she pokes holes in the politically correct culture of the day.
Following in the tradition of her mother who was a "muleskinner cusser", Miss King decries the "decline and fall of profanity" which has dwindled down to a few meager 4 letter words. She also has much to say about the pandering of the "Helpists", "personality over character", her aversion to children, and more. Being one myself, I thoroughly enjoyed Chapter 4, "Spinsterhood is Powerful". She says in this chapter: "I am often accused of being an anti-feminist, and my name is mud at Ms. Magazine, but in truth my whole life has been a feminist statement. The conflict lies not in my outlook and attitudes but in the definition of feminism that has been foisted on America in the late twentieth century".
Chapter 16, about her foray into the lusty romance novel genre (which she wrote under the pseudonym of Laura Buchanan) is hilarious, as are her efforts to write a magazine piece on the work of John Updike. This collection of 18 essays was originally published in '89, and is a good example of her cynical but humorous viewpoint. Though dreadfully missed as a contributor to National Review Magazine, where she has recently taken her leave (her "Misanthrope's Corner" had graced the back page for decades), her books will continue to delight me, in their uniqueness and passionate spirit of independence.
Rating:
Summary: the marvelous misanthrope
Review: Florence King has a winning way with words and a rapier sharp wit; a rare soul who lives and writes by her own set of rules, few subjects are spared her criticism, as she pokes holes in the politically correct culture of the day.
Following in the tradition of her mother who was a "muleskinner cusser", Miss King decries the "decline and fall of profanity" which has dwindled down to a few meager 4 letter words. She also has much to say about the pandering of the "Helpists", "personality over character", her aversion to children, and more. Being one myself, I thoroughly enjoyed Chapter 4, "Spinsterhood is Powerful". She says in this chapter: "I am often accused of being an anti-feminist, and my name is mud at Ms. Magazine, but in truth my whole life has been a feminist statement. The conflict lies not in my outlook and attitudes but in the definition of feminism that has been foisted on America in the late twentieth century".
Chapter 16, about her foray into the lusty romance novel genre (which she wrote under the pseudonym of Laura Buchanan) is hilarious, as are her efforts to write a magazine piece on the work of John Updike. This collection of 18 essays was originally published in '89, and is a good example of her cynical but humorous viewpoint. Though dreadfully missed as a contributor to National Review Magazine, where she has recently taken her leave (her "Misanthrope's Corner" had graced the back page for decades), her books will continue to delight me, in their uniqueness and passionate spirit of independence.
Rating:
Summary: A purely superb book- straight shots of wit throughout
Review: This is simply a fine book. There exists not another fine wit like this anywhere, now that Mencken is dead. George Will wrote of Miss King- "If Mencken were alive, he would be her". This is the highest praise imagineable, and well deserved. Miss King is to prose as Elton John is to rock piano. Do not overlook this book.
Rating:
Summary: A purely superb book- straight shots of wit throughout
Review: This is simply a fine book. There exists not another fine wit like this anywhere, now that Mencken is dead. George Will wrote of Miss King- "If Mencken were alive, he would be her". This is the highest praise imagineable, and well deserved. Miss King is to prose as Elton John is to rock piano. Do not overlook this book.
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