"How To Be A Brit" by George Mikes (illustrations by Nicolas Bentley) - (Penguin)

ISBN: 978-0-241-97500-8 Penguin

I'm attracted to the Penguin classic design book and when I saw "How To Be a Brit" at the Last Bookstore in Downtown Los Angeles, it brought back memories of me going to used bookstores in London and finding old Penguin paperbacks from the 1940s.  That it has illustrations going through the entire book is an additional plus.  I didn't buy it.  Two weeks later I saw it at a Tokyo bookstore that has an English language section, and they had a stack of this title.  For sure, the perfect book for the foreigner visiting another country.  Still, I didn't buy it.  It wasn't until I got back from Japan that I went back to The Last Bookstore, to locate this damn book. I did and went to the library to get other titles by George Mikes.

I have a fascination with books by foreigners writing about another culture. Mikes originally came from Hungary and lived in London for most of his life.   In a sense, he became more British than the British, and on top of that, he knew there is a cultural difference between the British and everyone else.   Some of the commentaries are out-of-fashion, but for me, that's not a problem.  Even the subject matter is not that important to me.  What's important is Mikes' language and his funny observations that border on being stereotyping, but that's OK. 

"How To be a Brit" is actually three short books put together.  "How to be an Alien," How to be Inimitable, and "How to be Decadent," which sadly has no Sadian touches, but more with how the every day British treat themselves. Nicolas Bentley's illustrations throughout the book are charming, funny, and a reminder of Robert Benchley's world.  In fact, there are traces of Benchley in Mikes' work.  Both are the absurd humorists commenting on the everyday life of... well, people. 

"Rhubarb" by H. Allen Smith

Like the other great American genius writer Throne Smith, his spiritual brother H. Allen Smith is many ways the PG Wodehouse of the Screwball era. A rich eccentric millionaire dies and leaves all his wealth and real estate to his pet cat Rhubarb, who like his owner is fussy, and kind of mean. And he also owns a baseball team. So in this book you get zany, zany characters - everyone from a muscle bound daughter to crooked lawyers, to dopey baseball players, to an occasional bad dog or two (sorry dog lovers). If you mixed Howard Hawks comedy with a side dish of Throne Smith, and a touch of small-town Manhattan you got "Rhubarb." The fact that this book is out-of-print is truly a criminal ac

"Life In A Putty Knife Factory" by H. Allen Smith

I found this title and five other books by H. Allen Smith at Powell's Bookstore in Portland, OR.   I never heard of the man, and I just found it by chance - just one of the many great things about visiting a bookstore.  The chance element is very important with respect to book and record shopping.  Nevertheless H. Allen Smith is hysterical.  He is very much the NYC Manhattan writer of the  1940s.   Gin drinking, wise crackin' gentleman of the typewriting world.

This is not his first book, but I believe it is second volume of humorous essays.  Many gems here like this one regarding the writer Ring Lardner:

"Hey, Ring.  Let's get drunk tonight."
"What day is it?"  Lardner asked.
"Wednesday."
"Can't  Got an appointment next Tuesday."

Now I find that hysterical.  Also he mentions one of my favorite obscure writers, Thorne Smith, quite often in these pages.  Mentions him as a friend and someone who appreciates his work.  So one gets at least four stars for that fact.  Other then that there is a really great essay on Bing Crosby and trying to do an interview with him - that's funny and quite profound at the same time.  Smith is sadly out of print, but his wit hits the mark and his writing style is superb.