Um

After finishing my Goodreads review of Hope: A Tragedy, I read some other user reviews.

One included quotes. Decided to share these here also.

Why did the chicken cross the road? Because he was a schmuch... because he thought there might be something better on the other side. 

Why did children always draw the sun smiling? he wondered. It's a giant ball of fire, kids. It's rage and fury. Whatever it's doing, it isn't f-ing smiling.

Most of the book's reviews were positive. Among those that were not, someone likened it to Dick & Jane Readers. Um...

I was thinking: Edgar Allen Poe or Dr. Seuss, myself.  As mentioned, the novel did not use quotation marks.  If Kugel was thinking about strange tapping noises coming from the attic, his thoughts might mimic either or. Does not everybody start using song lyrics when speaking? Or thinking? Common or popular words that somehow pop into our minds. 

Has not every one at one time or another said, "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my?" Or on a ship with weather (as the airline pilots say) started humming or singing the theme to Gilligan's Island? Said, "May the force be with you." 

So that if Auslander had written: "Monkeys, squirrels and deer, oh my," in context of story events, it would elicit a chuckle of recognition.  Or maybe I never advanced beyond Dick & Jane Readers.

I also never once thought about Woody Allen when reading the novel. Several readers did.  Mainly readers who did not like Woody Allen. They were mainly the ones with low ratings for the book. Interesting. Very interesting.