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Summary: What's the time?
Review: (Read the book...) I love this book. There's not a single caricature in this book that can't be spotted in a trip from Galway to Oughterard, and that's what make it so great. If you like this book, try something by Flann O'Brien ("Myles na Gopaleen") - "The Third Policeman," or "The Poor Mouth," or "The Best of Myles."
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Summary: Utter whit
Review: Brilliant. I loved it. I nearly wet myself with laughter. Puckoon is full of that mad humour which keeps me sane. He gives a view of the Irish as being country bumpkins with little intelligence. Any book by Spike Milligan is worth buying. His war memoirs are brilliant, as is his interpretation of the Old Testiment. Puckoon must be his masterpiece though. I loved the bit when Dr. Goldstein impersonates a goat as they are trying to catch a vicious Panther thats escaped from Gulio Ceaser's circus, as well as the chapter on the Boundary Commission. The Chinese policeman is also the best. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Brilliant. Long Live Spike Milligan
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Summary: Quite "Simply The Best"
Review: I can only endorse and agree with everybodies praise for this piece of work. I first read this in my early teens and now at 43 I'm on my third copy. I'd love to know why this has never been made into a film, although judging by the laughter count while you read it I guess it would be almost impossible to act it.
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Summary: The funniest book I have ever read
Review: I first read this book on a friend's recommendation over thirty years ago. While I am a great Goon fan (Spike wrote all of the 150 or so scripts) I didn't always find his other work such as Beachcomber on TV as funny, but this book did not disappoint me one iota. It should be prescribed reading for all those people that have the nerve to say that Monty Python was the natural successor to the Goons or Spike. They didn't even come close (by about a thousand miles!) to the absolute brilliance of his writing.
I have just bought this book through Amazon (via bestbooksbrought2you - thanks Teresa, great service) for a friend's birthday. Even now, I can open the book at ANY page and break down in uncontrollable laughter at the visions he creates on every one. My wife and I still use some of the catch phrases from the book ('Caw!' said the crow - 'B*lls' said Milligan). The world lost a true genius when he died almost three years ago (Feb 2002) and this is shown in his chosen engraving on his tombstone - 'I told you I was ill'......
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Summary: When I was 12 years old, God sent me Puckoon.
Review: I love this book to death and my admiration for Milligans manic and surreal humour is surpassed by no other. But to put into context the comedy element of this book I have to tell a story. My father gave me a well thumbed copy of this book when I was twelve yeras old and frankly it was a revelation. I was in bed reading it and found one particular passage so amusing I started to laugh the ubiquitous 'out loud'. I laughed and laughed and laughed hysterically for a good five or six minutes. This was the kind of laughter which if observed by a pediatrician would have been diagnosed as symptomatic of my good self going right round the royal bend. Anyhows I laughed so long, so loud and so hard, my parents rushed up to my bedroom believing I was asphixiating in my sleep. This story is absolutely true. Ask my dad. God bless Milligan. Read this and die laughing.
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Summary: Absolutely Milligan at his best
Review: It has been many years since I last saw my well-thumbed copy of Puckoon. Now, exiled in the United States, I am searching Amazon.com for that perfect gift for my wife. She's one of those Americans who thinks she's Irish. Puckoon would be the perfect gift for her. I still remember laughing until I cried at the antics of the characters in Puckoon. There is no doubt that Spike Milligan has written one of the funnies books ever written about Ireland. I hope that my children will one day be able to both read and appreciate this book. Spike Milligan has written many books, all of them good, but Puckoon will always stand out in my mind. Reading Puckoon is like having your own personal Spike Milligan in the room with you. Rick Barnes.
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Summary: Short and sweet
Review: Oh, how Spike Milligan is missed! His humor is unsurpassed; and completly his own. Puckoon is Milligan being Milligan. The novel moves along at a brisk pace, even when it seems little is happening. Reading everything coming together at the end is pure delight. I can't recommend this book enough... the only drawback is that it's so short it leaves you wanting more.
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Summary: GOON PUKOON
Review: SPIKE IS A COMEDY GOD..AND A GOON
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Summary: Depressed? Suicidal? Cure all your ills.....BUY THIS BOOK
Review: This book is quite simply the funniest book ever written.
My Father tried to read this book to me, as a bedtime tale when I was 8 years old. He used to get about 2 pages before falling off the end of the bed laughing. This, to an 8 year old was funnier than the book. To those over 8 who have read this book, nothing is funnier, ever.
I read it first, when I was 14. I laughed so hard and so loudly that I woke up everyone in the house. To this day,the lines (and I paraphrase here, forgive me) "Thank god the ground broke my fall." "Yes its handy for that." sends me into spasms of laughter. I dare you to read this book in a public place and not laugh out loud.
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Summary: Chortle, chuckle, snigger, snort.
Review: This is probably the funniest book i have ever read. Spike's surreal, zany homour didn't always hit the mark but when it did....pure genious! and "Puckoon" definately hits the mark.
e,g. Mrs. Doonan tried to get a divorce from her husband and the solicitor says..."But Mrs. Doonan, just because you don't like him, that's no grounds for separation."
"Well, make a few suggestions," she said.
"Has he ever struck you?"
"No. I'd kill him if he did."
"Has he ever been cruel to the children?"
"Never."
"Ever left you short of money, then?"
"No, every Friday on the nail."
"I see." The solicitor pondered. "Ah, wait, think hard now, Mrs. Doonan, has he ever been unfaithful to you?"
Her face lit up. "By God, i tink we got him there, I know for sure he wasn't the father of me last child!"
Spike manages to find humour and hillarious characterization set amongst the unlikely backdrop of the creation of the state of Northern Ireland, and "Any hostility to the Boundary Commissioners will be penalized with fines from a shilling up to death..."
The border just happens to fall right through the centre of "Puckoon"!
If you like wry, askew and slightly silly jokes...buy this book!
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