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Wanda Hickey Night of Golden Memories And Other Disasters Jean Shepherd 9780385116329 Books

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Wanda Hickey Night of Golden Memories And Other Disasters Jean Shepherd 9780385116329 Books

Back in the late 1960s when the title story, Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories, came out in Playboy I read it there - yes I did actually read things in Playboy! But I'd never read the other Shepherd stories collected in this book. I have now and they're all wonderful. Shepherd was a brilliant writer - able to paint a word picture like few writers I know. His stories tell of growing up in a working class town in the mid-west around the late 1930s. Shepherd's real talent here is making experiences that, objectively, sound really awful come across as fun and funny. He makes a grueling car trip at the start of the annual family vacation sound like a delightful, funny, adventure when, in reality, it would have been torture for anyone experiencing it at the time. So the stories are mostly humorous - usually very much so. But he can be poignant as well. The most affecting story is The Return of the Smiling Wimpy Doll in which he writes as an adult who has just received a big box of his old toys from his mom who was cleaning out the basement of the hold home. As he goes through these, one by one, each brings back a particular story or event from his childhood. I laughed out loud several times. But I teared up several times too.


Tags : Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories: And Other Disasters [Jean Shepherd] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>A bestselling classic of humorous and nostalgic Americana and the basis of the movie A Christmas Story.</i></b> Before Garrison Keillor and Spalding Gray there was Jean Shepherd: a master monologist and writer who spun the materials of his all-American childhood into immensely resonant—and utterly hilarious—works of comic art. Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories</i> is a universal (and achingly funny) orchestration of Midwestern puberty rites,Jean Shepherd,Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories: And Other Disasters,Broadway Books,0385116322,Coming of Age,Humorous - General,Humorous stories, American,Humorous stories, American.,United States;Social life and customs;20th century;Fiction.,20th century,FICTION Coming of Age,FICTION Humorous General,FICTION Short Stories (single author),Fiction,Fiction-Humorous,Form - Essays,GENERAL,General Adult,HUMOR Form Essays,Humor,Humour,ReadingsAnthologiesCollected Works,Social life and customs,United States,christmas story;a christmas story;short stories;comedy;satire;funny books;drama;coming of age;humorous books;funny gifts;fiction;novels;humor;fiction books;humor books;long story short;short story collections;books fiction;short story anthology;satire fiction;short stories collections;essays;anthology;cats;dogs;comics;fantasy;old fashioned;writing;animals;family;autobiography;marketing;radio;literary fiction;comic;relationships;halloween;pop culture;letters;garrison keillor;social;mystery;aging,comics; essays; comedy; animals; cats; satire; autobiography; humorous; coming of age; family; dogs; writing; literary fiction; comic; short stories; funny books; humorous books; funny gifts; fiction; fiction books; humor; humor books; long story short; short story collections; short stories collections; short story anthology; satire fiction; anthology; anthologies; old fashioned; biography; radio; marketing; garrison keillor; halloween; relationships; christmas story; a christmas story; drama; novels; books fiction; letters

Wanda Hickey Night of Golden Memories And Other Disasters Jean Shepherd 9780385116329 Books Reviews

I love the movie Christmas Story which was an adaptation of several Jean Shepherd's short stories in this anthology and In God We Trust All Others Pay Cash. I owned these books many years ago and must have loaned them out, so I was happy to see that they were back in print. For anyone who enjoys a belly laugh, reading about Shepherd's 1950s childhood in a working class Chicago suburb, this collection of stories will not disappoint.
If you like A Christmas Story you’ll love this book. The author is my parents age, but the emotions and rhythms of his life are timeless. I feel sorry for kids who haven’t experienced life before technology made everything easy and much less fun.
Jean Shepherd is an icon of my youth and I have fond memories of reading "Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories" when it was originally published as a short story in Playboy magazine. To re-visit it as part of this book was a pleasure beyond description. Jean Shepherd was a few years older than me (I came of age in the '50s and '60s) but the tales of his experiences growing up, the home and school environments in which he lived, and even the descriptions of toys he had as a child truly resonate There parts of this book which detail the role of cereal box premiums and an episode involving Cloverine Brand Salve which duplicated events in my own life with absolute precision. To say that his writing is rich and savory would not do it justice but the way Jean Shepherd uses words is masterful.
If you're at all a fan of Jean Shepherd you need to have this book in your library. My family and I regard it as part of our collective traditions worthy of passing on to our children. (We grew up in Indiana so we have a built-in appreciation of Shepherd's humor.) It picks up the extended narrative of the Christmas Story in the author's high school era. Same cast of characters, same locations etc.
I don't know how many times I've read this book - and many of of Mr. Shepherd's and they never fail to make me laugh out loud. " A Christmas Story" is probably the Jean Shepherd story most folks know about, but all of his stories are at least as funny, if not funnier. Better still to get an audiobook and have Jean narrate the story himself. He is my 'go to' author when I need a good laugh.
Written about an era long gone by, the stories are never old, the characters are like old friends, and family is probably a lot like your own.
If you haven't been introduced to Jean Shepherd's writing, then you are missing out.
From the author who gave us "you'll shoot your eye out kid" comes another smattering of the life and times of a young man and his family. Don't expect too much here.
There are bounces of time from chapter to chapter that could see him in grade school being clobbered by a bully to, in the next chapter, reliving old kid memories from a box his mother sent to his new apartment. Reference to radio shows in the early days of broadcasting might bring a smile of remembrance from some readers but mostly this takes place in the 40,s. I'm 72 now and don't remember any radio show that sticks in my mind. I was a TV kid anyway. Hands down the final chapter,and the book title, is most hilarious,as it should. How many things can go wrong in one night? Just give this a read and see if it's anything like what happened to you.
There are many small editing problems with misplaced or misspelled words...mostly towards the end. But quit your complaining and read the book already. Sheesh...kids!
I didn't discover Jean Shepherd's nostalgic writing until my northern Indiana high school 50th reunion was just around the corner; for me his nostalgia is painfully funny. The stories discuss middle- and high-school male students learning about life, charting their paths by following other's examples and by trying to meet other's expectations; the results usually are humorously embarrassing. Perhaps Jean Shepherd's nostalgia is best viewed from the finish line (and hopefully the winner's circle) you remember and you laugh about the stupid stuff you formerly did, and as a mature adult you are happy that you no longer slavishly cater to other's expectations. Yet this story collection also includes one short story (The Star-Crossed Romance Of Josephine Cosnowski) that all younger men need to know.
Back in the late 1960s when the title story, Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories, came out in Playboy I read it there - yes I did actually read things in Playboy! But I'd never read the other Shepherd stories collected in this book. I have now and they're all wonderful. Shepherd was a brilliant writer - able to paint a word picture like few writers I know. His stories tell of growing up in a working class town in the mid-west around the late 1930s. Shepherd's real talent here is making experiences that, objectively, sound really awful come across as fun and funny. He makes a grueling car trip at the start of the annual family vacation sound like a delightful, funny, adventure when, in reality, it would have been torture for anyone experiencing it at the time. So the stories are mostly humorous - usually very much so. But he can be poignant as well. The most affecting story is The Return of the Smiling Wimpy Doll in which he writes as an adult who has just received a big box of his old toys from his mom who was cleaning out the basement of the hold home. As he goes through these, one by one, each brings back a particular story or event from his childhood. I laughed out loud several times. But I teared up several times too.