Synopsis
In a world where few people laugh at themselves, Arsenic Soup For Lovers is the perfect blend of short stories guaranteed to make you step back and look at the world from a different perspective. In this tart and wickedly amusing collection by author Georgia Z. Post, ordinary life situations unfold in a myriad of quirky moments. For ex-wives who want to get even, widows who wish for marriage at any cost, and couples on the brink of divorce, malice is suddenly a very useful tool. Then there are the daily challenges of the perfect couple (who hate each other), the husband with the midlife crisis, the guy looking for the ideal woman, and of course, the man with the fetish for touching women’s knees. Whether you’re on your morning commute, relaxing after a day at the office, or in the mood to delve into the peculiar side of human nature, Arsenic Soup For Lovers offers entertaining, unorthodox, and creative solutions to tickle your funny bone.
Review
Arsenic Soup For Lovers - When Chicken Soup Doesn’t Work – Very Very Short Stories for Very Very Busy People, quite a title for such a short book, is a funny look at the unusual side of life and human behaviour. This is a collection of 25 very short stories, stories that would be perfect for when you only have a moment but would like a tale with some quirks.
Most of the stories found in this collection have a very noir feeling to them, some seem to be teaching the characters a lesson and others point out the things we take for granted. The Perfect Couple is a perfect example of black humour in it’s shortest and most morbidly funny. Email is a classic cautionary tale, best reflecting that old saying “Curiosity killed the cat”. Valentines is a touching tidbit on how people that don’t share their feelings are often missing out on so much. My favourite stories were The Widow’s Deception, in which a woman trying to shake her kids over-attentions ends up with attention of another, better kind; and Assisted Living, which features a spunky senior who still has the fire of life and sneakily bucks the system to share it with others.
Arsenic Soup For Lovers was a quick, enjoyable read and even though some of the topics were repetitive, the stories were staggered in a way that made them fun to read. A good mixture of dark humour, sweetness and believable characters. This is a book of stories that sometimes presents people in a way that exposes their nastier sides, but in real life people do act in not so nice ways. Arsenic Soup For Lovers gives us the opportunity to laugh at these things, and really if you can’t laugh at human folly, what’s the point?
About The Author
Georgia Z. Post is a retired administrator of a sponsorship program for children overseas. Her first book, With Malice Toward Some, addresses the issues of love and hate with quirky solutions to ordinary problems. She lives in Tarpon Springs, Florida, with her husband of fifty-two years.
Published by iUniverse
© 2008-2010 Joanne Mosher of The Book Zombie. All rights reserved.
3 comments:
I've heard of this one before, it does sound good. great review.
http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/
Great review. This sounds like something to read on the short subway ride.
I loved your blog. Thank you.
Post a Comment