More Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest: True News of the World's Least Competent People

By Roland Sweet and John J. Kohut

Book Overview

Death-defying and vulnerable fur-traders and Indians, demi-devils and almost-angels, and other complex personalities come fully to life in The Ancient Memory, which completes the collecting of John G. Neihardt's early short fiction begun with The End of the Dream and Other Stories. Originally published in popular magazines between 1905 and 1908, these stories about the American frontier illustrated Neihardt's artistry in the short form and foreshadow the themes, situations, and characterizations of his later, better-known work. Although two of the Indian stories, the ironic "Feather for Feather" and the satirical "A Political Coup at Little Omaha," were collected in The Lonesome Trail in 1907, none has been reprinted since early in the twentieth century. Other stories included here are "Like a Woman," featuring the plucky Pelagie, and "The Face in the Balcony," which is dedicated to "those who have gone through life misunderstood." "The Epic-Minded Scot," about a stranger who is stubbornly idealistic and scrupulous, is considered one of Neihardt's best tales. "The Brutal Fact" revolves around a William Tell type of contest between trapping partners that anticipates Neihardt's Song of Three Friends. "The Lure of Woman," a study of greed and revenge, was expanded into his novel Life's Lure . The ineffable "Ancient Memory" carries profound philosophical implications while presenting a strange doppelg?nger of sorts. Finally, the memorable Waters-an alcoholic, one-legged, one-eyed frontier printer-is introduced in "The Discarded Fetish," which, with minor changes, became the first half of the novel The Dawn-Builder . In her foreword Neihardt's daughter Hilda Neihardt recalls intimate details incidental to the writing of these stories.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452278910
• ISBN13: 9780452278912
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Plume Books
• Length: 231 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Dumb book

Before I head to bed I like to enjoy light reading to help me relax before I turn out the lights. “More Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest” appeared to be a good candidate for that purpose. Of the examples I have read so far, relatively few are all that humorous. Ironic, reckless, foolish, yes, but not so many that generate a laugh from me. For example, the story of a 96-year-old woman who is having running water installed in her home for the first time in her life and is staying in a motel while the work is being done. She decides to indulge in a bath in her room’s tub, and winds up dying from scalding water because she didn’t balance it with water from the cold tap. Good grief! A 96 year-old unfamiliar with running water and the mechanics to regulate it—and we’re supposed to be amused by her dying the first time she tries to soak in a bathtub…I find the humor in this story as shallow as the humanity.

funny funnier and funniest

This has to be one of the best, and most interesting books that i have read in a while. Not only does it give you plenty of useless information, but it give you hours of comedic pleasure. A great book to just sit and read on rainy days. I suggest that you go buy it soon