Ron Charles
That weird incongruity between highbrow/lowbrow humor is only part of what makes Bowl of Cherries so irresistible. Kaufman's comic imagination, his ability to mix things scatological and historical, political and philosophical, reminds one of those young'uns Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller. The ridiculous slapstick in Assama is straight from Woody Allen's "Don't Drink the Water," and a cameo appearance by a goofy President Bush will take you back to "Dr. Strangelove." But Kaufman seems to have more heart than those '60s satirists; his precocious young hero pulls on our sympathies even as he trudges on through absurdity…Kaufman turns away from the cynical finale that easily could have finished Bowl of Cherries. Maybe something about surviving 90 years of disastrous human history has given him the courage to scrape out a little hope. Yes, there's a mushroom cloud—all of Judd's bosses have learned to stop worrying and love the bomb—but that's not enough to keep this young man down. Or Kaufman. He's reportedly working away on a second novel. Please, nobody distract him.
—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
Nonagenarian Kaufman-twice nominated for screenwriting Oscars in the 1950s and a cocreator of Mr. Magoo-makes his fiction debut with this irresistible comic novel, a bawdy, original coming-of-age tale. Kaufman brings bright, resourceful Judd Breslau to vivid life, giving him a striving nature that always leads to trouble. After dropping out of Yale at 14, Judd moves into the crumbling mansion of nut-job Egyptologist Phillips Chatterton, where he joins a phalanx of oddball thinkers working on a quixotic project to redesign human society. A fringe benefit is Chatterton's daughter, Valerie, over whom Judd goes ga-ga. Both Judd and Valerie end up in New York, where Judd interviews with a shady corporation seeking a revolting economic opportunity in war-torn Iraq. So it's off to the hilariously backwards Coproliabad, where Judd runs afoul of the new sheikh, who wants Valerie for his queen. In fact, Judd, awaiting execution, narrates the whole book from a fetid jail cell. Kaufman's screwball sensibility, relish for language, gleeful vulgarism and deep sympathy for his characters make this novel an unprecedented joyride. Whether it's due to his being alive for 90 years or not, Kaufman's book is shot through with worldly wit and a keen sense of the humor in human foibles. (Oct.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information
Library Journal
Kaufman, cocreator of Mr. Magoo and two-time Oscar-nominated screenwriter for Take the High Ground!(1954) and Bad Day at Black Rock(1956) has, at the age of 90, published his first novel. Judd Breslau is a child prodigy who leaves Yale at the age of 14 at his doctoral adviser's urging, only to fall in with Phillip Chatterton, a retired Egyptologist with poor hygiene who is working on his opus in a dilapidated mansion. Soon, Judd falls in love with Chatterton's daughter, develops a deep hatred for her boyfriend, befriends an international student, and eventually ends up arrested in Iraq, awaiting his own execution. These events, however unrelated they seem, are tied together by Kaufman's narration following no set time line, with the narrative alternating between the jail cell and the events leading Judd there. Reminiscent of Christopher Moore's fantastic fiction, this work includes quite a cast of quirky characters and unbelievable sequence of strange events that keep the story intriguing and perhaps also illustrates the turbulence of growing up. Recommended for larger public libraries.
—Stephen Morrow
From the Publisher
“[Kaufman] is a wildly imaginative and funny writer…an ageless author who is ripe for a new audience.” —Los Angeles Times
“Equal parts Catcher in the Rye and Die Hard.” —The New Yorker
“Kaufman’s screwball sensibility, relish for language, gleeful vulgarism, and deep sympathy for his characters make this novel an unprecedented joyride.” —Publishers Weekly
“A smart, zany comedy . . . That weird incongruity between highbrow/lowbrow humor is only part of what makes Bowl of Cherries so irresistible. Kaufman's comic imagination, his ability to mix things scatological and historical, political and philosophical, reminds one of those young'uns Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller. The ridiculous slapstick in Assama is straight from Woody Allen's Don't Drink the Water, and a cameo appearance by a goofy President Bush will take you back to Dr. Strangelove. But Kaufman seems to have more heart than those '60s satirists; his precocious young hero pulls on our sympathies even as he trudges on through absurdity.” —Ron Charles, Washington Post
“Kaufman doesn't disappoint, and his narrative is infused with . . . wisdom and whimsy . . . Kaufman exudes a vitality that novelists half his age would envy.” —Baltimore Magazine
“The ninety year old’s inquisitiveness and tenacity shine brightly within the novel, in which he weaves words more impressively than a spider spins a web.” —Rocky Mountain Chronicle
“Bowl of Cherries reads like a picaresque Kurt Vonnegut farce narrated by Augie March . . . The descriptions of Judd's troubled upbringing and the world of higher education are as gorgeously blooming as his carnal adventures are funny . . . a knowing satire of the American lust for recognition at any cost.” —Baltimore City Paper
“A freewheeling comedy that careens from a Colorado horse ranch to an Iraqi prison to a porn studio underneath the Brooklyn Bridge . . . Bowl of Cherries is the work of a writer unshackled, finally able to use vocabulary and structure verboten in Hollywood.” —Rolling Stone
“When you read Bowl of Cherries, you will know that this writer is a reader . . . the modus operandi of this book is to find a way to laugh at anything . . . I haven’t had this kind of fun in a long time.” —Michael Silverblatt, KCRW Bookworm
“Make no mistake, Bowl of Cherries is crass, offensive and overblown, but its portrait of a world driven mad by greed and hucksterism, miracle cures and imperialist agendas stumbles smack into its share of worthy targets.” —Jewish Daily Forward
