Author(s): Morris Lurie

General

Thirty stories in the incomparably distinctive voice of the author whose publishing career started with the comic novel Rappaport. One story starts with "I won a house in a lottery", and proceeds to career seemingly out of control - except it isn't. Other stories open in equally startling fashion. Try: "Hergesheimer flees his marriage in a twenty - four - year - old car ..."; "How do you steal from a thief ?"; "Show me a man without tan - trum and I'll show you a man without blood"; "The prettiest damsel in many a moon drops a smile in Hergesheimer's direction, which he, ever the gallant, snatches expertly up, with a bow courteously returns."