Pierre Berton Critical Essay | Critical Review by Stephen Smith

SOURCE: "Berton's Really Not Funny," in Quill & Quire, July, 1996, p. 50.

In the following brief review, Smith criticizes Berton's failed attempts at satire in Farewell to the Twentieth Century: A Compendium of the Absurd.

What I was going to do was make a humorous approach to Pierre Berton's purportedly funny Farewell to the Twentieth Century: A Compendium of the Absurd. What I had in mind was a piece poking jocosely at the book's general—what to call it?—imperfection, showing by clever example that this was a balloon that never had any air in it, and how sad is that? Light on the feet, quick to the point, winkish in a benevolent way that said nothing harsher than while somebody may find this to be a funny book, and while I could respect their choice in doing so in the spirit of pluralism, they should not try to contact me...
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