What to Read Instead #7 Hodgman vs. Perelman -- Garbo

 

In this week's post, I compare the work of a writer people know because they've seen him om television, and a writer people used to know. I wonder how that will go. . .

John Hodgman is a contemporary actor, media figure, and author/playwright S. J. Perelman lived from 1`904 to 1979.  Both have written a lot of humorous stuff about their failures and problems. And both men lived as Brooklynites, Perelman by birth and Hodgman by choice. And on top of that, hey kind of look alike don't they? 

John Hodgman

S. J. Perelman

Book to Skip:

Vacationland by John Hodgman

 Why skip it?

I don't think it helped, when I read this book, that I moved to Maine almost ten years ago. I may be sensitive to the feeling that people from out-of-state are replacing the original population. But that's not why I suggest skipping Vacationland. To make things short and sweet: I find John Hodgman irritating mostly, with moments of wit and charm too short and far between to balance things out. To go down one more layer, Hodgman does one of the things I least like in a public personality, writer or otherwise; he acts kind of like a jerk and then feels that acknowledging that the knows that he's being kind of a jerk is enough to nullify the problem. 

The Swiss Family Perelman by S. J. Perelman

 Why read this?

S. J. Perelman won an Oscar for the screenplay of "Around the World in 80 Days," and he co-wrote (with Ogden Nash)  the book for the well-regarded musical  "One Touch of Venus". He did a lot of parodies and sketches, but I think he was funniest writing about his own life. 

Like Vacationland, The Swiss Family Perelman is the story of a man and his family going places. But Perelman's book has more about what happens on the trip, while Hodgman's book is almost entirely about his own thoughts and feelings, and even then they aren't always about the actual places in the book. 

The illustration at the top of the post is from the front cover of a  library copy of The Swiss Family Perelman, the dust cover for which obviously disintegrated into -- well, dust. While an author can't really be given credit for the illustrations the publisher provides, the drawings in Perelman's books are very entertaining.  Here are a couple more favorite illustrations. 

In comparing the writers, can I say that S. J. Perelman was a better person than John Hodgman is? Well, no. A bit earlier in this post, i described John Hodgman as kind of a jerk. S.J. Perelman was definitely a jerk. In particular, he was not great as a husband and worse as a parent. People he did business with felt let down by Perelman. And yet, I find Perelman more acceptable because -- well, it's because I think that though he was a jerk, he felt bad about it, and tried to seek help from a psychoanalysis (with minimal success). 

This book has been out of print for a long time, but my public library let me search linked libraries' collections until I found a copy, and then I could pick it up using the curbside service.  Used copies go for about five bucks (with free shipping!) at www.abebooks.com. 

 Reading Times Compared

Vacationland   2 hours, 10 minutes

The Swiss Family Perelman  3 hours, 44 minutes

The website for The New Yorker has a good collection of Perelman pieces you can read online for free, by going here.

Disclaimer:  I suggest skipping books, but there's always a substitute offering in these posts. I never suggest skipping a book and playing more video games or spending more time doomscrolling. And I am not banning, condemning, harming, or trashing the books I recommend skipping. There's nothing wrong with the titles I suggest skipping; it's just a matter of making choices with limited time to read in a busy, busy world. 

                                                    

                                                           Garbo