The Ditches of Edison County

By Ronald Richard Roberts

Book Overview

Ronald Concave was a simple man with a simple assignment: take photos of the Sonnuva Ditch for "Readers' Digest". There were two problems, however. The first was that the bridges of Edison County got... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452272564
• ISBN13: 9780452272569
• Release Date: November 1993
• Publisher: Plume Books
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Wild and Crazy! Truly "Romantic"!

A great parody! Robert Waller deserved every bit of it!!! I liked the part about the main oaf (main character) so stylishly opening beer bottles with his teeth! This makes good fun of Waller's original silly trashy book, where the sleazy (but gloriously "romantic") unfaithful farm housewife is so taken by her bohemian hero's sensuous ways of opening beer cans and lighting cigarettes! You're desperately looking for a reason to leave your husband or wife? Not to worry, just LOOK at the way that slob doesn't light cigarettes and open beer cans in just that precisely correct, sensuous way!!! Other parts of the book were good as well. Making the anti-heroes into low-brows for humor grew a bit stale, though, for being over-done. I like to ALSO make lots of fun of the original "Bridges" for being ridiculous in making a virtue out of unreason. The less rational you are, the more you are morally superiour to others, merely boring rational types that they are, some silly pseudo-sophisticates like Waller will have us believe. If you want a good spoof of "Bridges" done from that perspective, see the chapter "Grain Elevators of Madness County" in the book, "Jurassic Horde Whisperer of Madness County".

Puns and paradigms

Extrenuating and overbearing at first. I kept sighing and wondering when the barage of puns would stop. Then I sat back and enjoyed it. The book messes with your mind. At one moment, you think you understand how the author structured the book and then you think you can be ready for any setup of a pun or paradigm shift. But then it catches you off-guard. If you're put off by a book that catches you sleeping, then this book isn't for you. Otherwise, have fun!

I was touched so deeply, I got a restraining order...

From the momentI first grasped this weighty tome between my turgid palms, it consumed me - consumed me the way a sponge consumes water or the way a drunk fraternity boy consumes a piece of pepperoni pizza (except if this book were a pizza, it would definitely have anchovies and probably peppers too). The book reads evenly - first you turn one page and then another - and so on, and so on, and so on, until, just when you and the book have reached a deep level of personal intimacy - it ends. It's gone, and like yesterday's meatloaf, the memory just spoils. great book