The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber

Having heard of James Thurber in the past I was interested to hear some of his work last year when Keith Olbermann started reading from his work on his MSNBC show. On an unrelated note the fact that Keith has left major broadcast cable news to go to the wasteland of Al Gore's network makes one wonder about what really happened when he departed from MSNBC.

This book was interesting. I love the New Yorker and knew that Thurber wrote many short pieces. I guess I was not as knowledgable about the nature of his work, that is that he was more of a humorist. This is not to say the stories are not interesting and funny, they are.

Some of the story collections are quite interesting, those centering on his youth and somewhat crazy family especially. The Dog That Bit People is a fine story. I found the stories from Fables for Our Time especially interesting in that they were humorous and purported to offer a sardonic moral.

This type of story collection is not as much what I prefer and so would not give this a rave review. The writing is more like the Shouts and Murmurs section of The New Yorker which while funny is not something that I have a great interest in. That said the stories are funny, some more than others, and I enjoyed educating myself of the work of this legendary writer.