Steve Martin Writes the Written Word by Steve Martin
"But our love was extinguished quickly, as though someone had thrown water from a high tower onto a burning dog."
The man has a way with words.
A super-strong contender for the book I send everyone at
Christmas this year. Keep that to yourself. You don't want to ruin the
surprise. This book is a compilation of Martin's short pieces - not sure
if they are better called stories or essays - but I do know for sure I can call
them short- and two novellas. Smart. Touching. And, yes, funny.
"...innumerable obstacles I would face on such a trip.
I could list a thousand impossibilities: I cannot get in an elevator. I
cannot stay on a hotel floor higher than three. I cannot use a public
toilet. What if there were no Rite Aids? What if we passed a roadside
mall where one store was open the others were closed? What if I saw the words
apple orchard? What if the trip took us in proximity to the terrifyingly
inviting maw of the Grand Canyon? What if we were on a mountain pass with
hairpin turns, or if during the entire trip, I could not find a billboard with
a palindromic word? Wat is our suitcases were of unequal sizes. How would
I breathe at the higher elevations? Would the thin air kill me dead? How
would we locate the exact state lines? And what if, at a gas station in
Phoenix, the attendant wore a blue hat?"
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