The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker

There's a reason why we don't immediately think 'short story writer' when we hear Parker's name. But almost five-hundred pages of this six-hundred page volume are dedicated to her stories, many of which are just not good. Don't get me wrong, she had many wonderful stories: Big Blonde, Arrangement in Black and White, The Waltz, From the Diary of a New York Lady and The Game are some shining examples. I am first to admit that I am not a huge fan of Parker's short stories. You see The Portable Dorothy Parker would be better titled The Short Stories of Dorothy Parker, interspersed by her Poetry with a paltry sampling of her Criticism, Reviews, Letters and Interviews. In that it only gets really good near the end and you spend most of your time skipping over the bad bits. Thus The Portable Dorothy Parker is a volume which I believed would be a fitting replacement for the Holy Book. As many people light candles in front of the Sacred Heart, I follow a similar regime with Parker, muttering incantations in front of her image and never gazing too long into her eyes. I view Dorothy Parker as my greatest influence. Despite dying in 1967, her vicious tongue has never been equalled.

She often filled her reviews with stories of her personal life or stray observations on society. As 'The Constant Reader' she praised and demolished the latest novels with such wit and grace that oftentimes the review was better than the work is discussed. Parker's book reviews are the finest of the form. Which makes me Picasso I guess, which I'll take. Well, in similar terms, Dorothy Parker is my biological mother. Picasso once said of Cézanne that he was 'the father of us all'. Dorothy Parker, renowned wit, critic, poet and short-story writer.

The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker