Add a dash of pity and other short stories | Peter Ustinov

Add a dash of pity and other short stories | Peter Ustinov | Highly recommended

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Add a dash of pity...

	Add a dash of pity and other short stories Peter Ustinov average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Exploring themes of nationalism, pride, heartbreak, aging, war, survival, misused authority and human fragility, raconteur Ustinov ("The Old Man and Mrs. Smith") unmasks pompous poseurs and reveals obscure heroes in a series of eight humorous, often touching narratives whose protagonists span countries and walks of life. In the title story, a court-martialed British brigadier willingly lives in ignominy for the failures of the weak general he served but never liked. Bilious former film composer Erhardt Von Csumlay, "The Man Who Took it Easy", now resentfully scrapes by as a gypsy violinist at a Hungarian restaurant in L.A. The xenophobic mayor of Alcaonde la Sagrada Orden brings disgrace to his town in pursuit of Spanish glory ("A Place in the Shade"). "The Man in the Moon" concerns British aerospace genius John Kermidge, who becomes a virtual political prisoner for viewing his discoveries as advances for the world rather than an edge in the international space race. Goodhearted Martha Gorbchek, a resident of Manhattan's 'little Czech colony', makes a tragic mistake in following the advice of a self-help talk-show panel ("A Word in the World's Ear"), and sheltered innocent Edwin Applecote, the voice of a rabbit on a BBC children's show, is similarly destroyed by authorities meant to protect him in the poignant "There are 43,200 Seconds in the Day". Ustinov writes with great wit and fills these memorable tales with clever, parenthetical insights along with a clear moral thrust.

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Accessible and Well-Crafted

I did not expect much from Ustinov as an author, because it was from his acting career that I first heard of him. With this colletion of short stories, however, I was pleasantly surprised. Every story is easy to get into, well thought out in terms of plot, and written beautifully. Need an example? This extract comes from the first story, "The Man Who Took it Easy": 'He caroused all night, talking black philosophy to his cronies while his mistress smoked knowingly...' Ustinov is very good at forming a picture of a scene or situation within the reader's mind. The subjects of his stories range from that of a down-and-out composer (The Man Who Took it Easy) to that of a WWII Italian soldier sitting in a shack in the middle of nowhere, waiting to die (The Aftertaste). Read these stories. Trust me, you will enjoy them.

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Highly recommended

Eight short stories that are, like Ustinov himself was, urbane and witty. Each one satirizes an area of contempory life (as it was in 1958 when these were published) in the Western world. An Hungarian violinist, two Russian authors struggling with communism, a Spanish bullfight that gets completely out of hand, and that had me laughing out loud many times, an English colonel growing plants in the title (and best) story, an English scientist who can put a man on the moon, a tragic Czech couple, an English man who is the voice of a rabbit on a BBC children's program, and four World War II generals in a frozen Russian shack. All are immensely entertaining, unpredictable, very original, and touchingly human. Highly recommended.

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