Lawrence Dorfman

When my Husband gives me a book and suggests I read it, I usually do as he’s not an avid reader; so when he gave me this one I sat and devoured it in a couple of hours.

If you’ve ever walked away from a situation wishing you could have come out with a witty remark or comeback to a comment someone made, then this is the book for you. Likewise, if you are looking for something that will bring a smile to your face on an otherwise long and boring journey (providing you’re not driving that is)then again you might want to consider picking this little gem up to travel with.
It is packed from cover to cover with asides and comeback from the famous and not so famous, some are a little juvenile in their delivery but all will make you laugh; and if travelling on an aeroplane as my Husband was when he read it, apparently make your fellow passengers laugh too.

The book is short and sweet and, by no means will it turn you into a verbal sparring heavyweight by the time you finish it, but it will keep you highly entertained. It is immature in places, as I’ve already said, but if we let our inner children die from lack of feeding then life will just become mundane. Feed this one to your inner child and it will be satisfied for a while.

I would recommend this book to anyone that appreciates life is for living and enjoying and not to be taken too seriously.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/01/15/review-the-snark-handbook-a-reference-guid...


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… (mere)

Pretty much what it says on the wrapper. I love snark and this random gift from a family member is just the sort of thing that makes me chuckle. It's a great collection, and was heading towards a 5 star rating, but it floundered a bit at the end. I was willing to overlook a couple of quotes - and really it was only a couple - that were repeated in slightly paraphrased form.

It's a thick book and one or two passing through the keeper is not unexpected. But at about the 80% mark, specifically the chapter on Motherhood, the quotes stopped being snarky and were just quotes about motherhood, some of them quite endearing and touching.

Then in the last 2-3 chapters, Dorfman lost that fifth star all together when he stopped quoting the greats and started ad libbing his own brand of snark, or at least what he likely considered snark. It was too acerbic for my tastes; it didn't read snarky nearly as much as it read angry and bitter. Vitriolic, even. The dude does NOT like Christmas. That's fair enough; Christmas can be a trying time for even the most festive feeling of us, but his barbs failed to find that sweet spot of gracious lunacy that can be Christmas. After that chapter, his further attempts at snarky comebacks to enduring cliches just fell flat.

Still, overall it's an excellent compendium of sarcastic and witty quotes that will serve me well as a handy reference when I'm at the end of my rope trying to be polite to the more challenging people in my life. Mostly time well spent.… (mere)