- Title: The Portable Dorothy Parker
- Author: Dorothy Parker (with an introduction by Brendan Gill)
- Year Published: This Edition-1976 (Penguin Books)
- Year Purchased: 2005
- Source: The Book Loft, Columbus, Ohio
- About: I’d like to think that Dorothy Parker needs no introduction, so I am not writing one. She engenders fierce loyalty in readers or, for those of a different mind-set, strong distaste. If you are known to curl up your tongue at her superior wit, and excellent writing, well, at least we know up front that we are from two different planets. Now, straight to the goods we go! I love any volume with the word portable in the title: it’s like a formal sanction from the reading gods that my habit of carrying books on my person at all times is acceptable. Acceptable and not at all weird. This is one of my favourite collections, as it allows for rapid changing of gears: Part One (selected by the lady herself for the original 1944 edition) is mostly poetry, with a bit of fiction sprinkled on the mix. Part Two is largely reviews and assorted articles. Whatever your preference, it is all Dorothy. In your face. Cutting. Finely honed. Beautiful. Her reviews are something else, and I pretty much bow down before them. They are worthy of serious and protracted boot licking.
- Motivation: Dorothy Parker? Check. Portable, too? Why yes. See above for explication of the latter point, if you are at all the type to skim my mini-reviews.
- Times Read: 1
- Random Excerpt/Page 441: “Misfortune, and recited misfortune especial, may be prolonged to that point where it ceases to excite pity and arouses only irritation. One more week’s crabbing out of me, and I fear that you will take to throwing eggs. Yet I am forced again to tell a tale of woe, for I have no other. And I can’t, you will admit, just stand up here in front of you and make faces, to earn my princely salary.”
- Happiness Scale: 9
American writer Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea.
Not just a blog, a philosophy
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 
Love the quote.
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Thanks, it is a personal fave!
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Not sure, but you might be interested in this literary small press, which I found via Roxie’s blog. I know you’ve got your own gig or gigs going, but they seem interested in blog post book reviews, inter alia:
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Hey, thanks! I may have my own gig, but I do a lot of freelancing as well. I appreciate the link.
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You’re welcome.
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