Woody Allen has been writing comic stories since the 1970s, although he is widely known for his cinematographic activity and his work as a playwright. His Hairless work spent four months on the New York Times bestseller list and established him as a witty writer, heir to the United States’ classic intellectual comedy, and a passion for the absurd. His stories, many of which were published in magazines, were compiled in different volumes and were often praised by critics. Gravity Zero is out these days, a storybook (about half published in The New Yorker) that begins with the genesis of one of the house brands.
Often ridiculous, these expressions are like little humorous delights with which the author mixes up stories. The first sentence of the book already shapes the reader’s mood and inserts it into Allen’s comic code: “Anyone who throws a lit match into the hold of an ordnance ship will confirm that the smallest movement can trigger a lot of decibels. These events are fortunately quite a lot (e.g. encountering the police”) The passage that ends with a “bouncing stick from my IQ” or Mike Tyson’s discovery that he has an 18-guest room “for situations where there are two full baseball teams. It turns out unexpectedly”), but often amplifies stories that are heavily penalized by caricature and morality. There are many stories that are too schematic, both in the plot and in the description of the characters. Insensitive real estate agents, unscrupulous Hollywood producers, failed actors, writers eager to get to Broadway fill these stories that, while they have a comic spark, are often somewhat pointless.
Allen also repeats, perhaps too often, the structure of stories that usually begin from a news story, a book, or an anecdote to compose the story. Thus, from Peter Biskind’s biography of Warren Beatty, about his endless adventures in bed, he creates the story of a journalist and a licentious and methodical actor who organizes his life to be prolific in the arts of love; or a pillow ad that exaggerates their virtues serves as a pretext for the adventures of an experienced explorer who found an incredibly long-lived civilization and whose secret lies in the restful sleep of a miraculous pillow. Also, in one of the weakest stories, Miley gets a real sentence from Cyrus; here he affirms that he will always maintain consensual relationships with all but animals, turning this idea into a paroxysm through a fictional analogy and continuing to experiment. to show—parodically—the weaknesses of a culture of political correctness.
bittersweet pastries
Likewise, spitter from English or Yiddish abuses puns in the names or surnames of characters meaning harpy, bedbug, nasty, or shark. This resource is so abundant that, by the way, the excellent job translator includes an extensive list of ambiguous nouns in the last edition note. Special mention deserves the plethora of stories about animals. From a cultured nerd who decides to kill a smug movie director, to two who are scammed by Madoff, who is reincarnated as a lobster, to two who decide to attack him with their claws through chickens learning to write successful plays.
With exceptions, reading these stories left a bittersweet residue on this reader. Good-sounding prose, not-so-successful humor, and a certain outdated air seemed to herald this as Allen’s literary decline. Without the tension and with the lightened elegance of the joke you already know how it ends. But in the final story, Growing Up in Manhattan, a miracle happens. Because in this last story, which is much longer than the others, the author abandons the broad brush to give a story made with the same precision touched by Annie Hall or Hannah and her sisters. All the elements put us in a Woody Allen story: a budding young playwright who marries early and falls in love with a Manhattan movie, an unapproachable girl, a relationship filled with insecurity, jealousy, and social differences, but above all, some subtle humorous dialogue, strident. Everything works in this story. The feeling when reading this amazing story is that for a moment you can rediscover the best Woody Allen. It’s a movie we haven’t seen on screen in a long time and rarely enjoy writing at this height.
Source: Informacion
