The Cat Who Went Underground

1989, Jove Books edition from later that year
Lilian Jackson Braun
The Cat Who Went Underground
Probably bought newish for $4.99
Very worn paperback with broken spine
B-

Although this is by no means the worst in the series, it is the worst since the first.  While I liked seeing Qwill deal with the frustrations of both remodeling and rural living, the book does have more striking flaws than usual, if none so glaring as would occur a decade or so later.  He's both 50 and "fiftyish" in this entry, set two summers after his inheritance, and in fact he returns to Aunt Fanny's cabin, for the first time since Played Brahms.  It should be 1986, and if so, Braun is correct that the Fourth of July fell on a Friday.  Qwill does make a "Pentagon shredding" joke that would be a bit prescient at that time of year, but maybe he isn't referring to Ollie North specifically.

The story seems to be moving along, with lots of interesting characters, including Mooseville neighbor Mildred, who would make some man a good wife if only her worthless husband weren't still alive (in jail).  She's smart, considerate, and a great cook, with a sense of humor.  But we know Braun isn't really shipping her with Qwill because she makes Mildred superstitious.  As for Polly, she's away in England, mostly sending postcards.  Meanwhile, Arch and Amanda continue to be on-and-off engaged.

The story falls apart a bit in the penultimate chapter:

1. For no reason except misguided chivalry, Qwill discourages curious Yum Yum from joining his friend Nick and Koko in the basement.  For cripe's sake, she's a cat, not a fragile flower!
2. Even though Qwill could have Nick stay in the cabin, hidden with his gun, while Qwill confronts the killer, he instead sends Nick on his way and then invites the killer over for pastry!
3. Then he lets the killer confess and drive off, before he regretfully calls the police.
4. There's no need for the killer to have a personality named "Louise."

Still, (with the exception of the final quibble) these are all consistent with Qwill's personality, annoying but human.  Braun has not yet had him, or anyone, do anything drastically out of character.

How Sluggo Survives!

1989, first edition, from Kitchen Sink Press
Ernie Bushmiller
How Sluggo Survives!
Bought newish for $7.95
Worn paperback
B-

The focus this time is on Nancy's boyfriend Sluggo.  Why does a seven-year-old (or ten-year-old or whatever she is) have a boyfriend?  Not only that, why do both of them consider themselves engaged to be engaged?  If you find that odd, you'll also wonder why Nancy pressures Sluggo to get a job.  He gets several, the most prominent here as an office boy, to a cranky man with a mustache. 

Sluggo lives in a "slanty shanty" with broken windows, broken furniture, cracked walls, and junk in the yard, so poor that burglars feel sorry for him.  He seems to live alone, although he'll sometimes refer to "we."  Not just in this volume, but in all my Nancy collections, his parents are never mentioned, although he does have a few aunts and uncles who live locally but separately (some quite well off).  As with Nancy's eating disorder, you can't let realism intrude.  Otherwise, Sluggo's survival would be a very serious question.

Sluggo, with his N'Yawk accent, definitely is tough enough to survive, even when menaced by bullies.  He's incredibly confident and as ingenious as Nancy.  Even when things go wrong, he keeps going.  And although he, like Nancy, never gets any older, he imagines that he'll be a great success as an adult, maybe even President.  I guess that's how to survive, by believing that you'll thrive.

Nancy Eats Food

1989, first edition, from Kitchen Sink Press
Ernie Bushmiller
Nancy Eats Food
Bought newish for $7.95
Very worn paperback with broken spine
B-

As the title suggests, Bushmiller riffs on a very basic concept, although there are some surprises along the way.  One is that Nancy, who at one point in one of these books says she's seven, acts more like a young teen, sometimes cooking (albeit badly) and getting crushes.  At one point she even stomps grapes for wine!  She also worries about her weight, but then so do the adults around her (worry about Nancy's weight), not just Aunt Fritzi but strangers.  Is there a subtext that she's bulimic?  Not likely, since Bushmiller's world is unchanging.  Nancy can eat food, or diet and exercise, and maintain the same chunky figure that all the kids have, even the "cute blondes" that Sluggo goes after.

The back cover shows panels of a strip where Nancy's original recipe for chili is nuclear-hot.  It also has quotes from Bill "Zippy the Pinhead" Griffith's introduction; Art Spiegelman, who says "someone" said it takes more effort not to read Nancy than to read it; and Roy Blount, Jr.  (Blount would go on to contribute a Nancy intro of his own.)

Some of the strips here also appeared in Walker's book, which is understandable.  Less forgivable is that Kitchen Sink would reuse some that fell under future themes, but I won't mark this book down for that.  Overall, this is nice kick-off to the series, although some of the views of Nancy eating look a bit Freudian, especially when she's got two bananas.

The Wit and Wisdom of George Bush

1989, edition from later that year, from St. Martin's Press
Ken Brady & Jeremy Solomon
The Wit and Wisdom of George Bush, with Some Reflections from Dan Quayle
Possibly bought newish for $2.95
Worn paperback
B-

I'd say this is closer to the style of Green and MacColl's Reagan book than to Ducovny's Nixon book, in that it's not just quotes but analysis of Bush's (and Quayle's) misspeaking.  At the time, we didn't know that George had sired a son who would say things like, "Is our children learning?" and "They misundestimated me." Reagan rambled but he sounded like he must mean something.  The Bushes (and Quayle) never gave an illusion of eloquence.  Perhaps that's why they never pissed me off that much.  I was more inclined to laugh.  And there are some still funny quotes here, among them:

• "Those are two hypo-rhetorical questions"
• "A thousand shining hill"
• And of course, of Reagan, "We had triumphs, we made mistakes, we had sex...uh, setbacks."

As for Quayle, I'll try to hold off till 1992's Airhead Apparent....

Now, Where Were We?

1989, undated possibly first paperback edition, from Villard Books
Roy Blount, Jr.
Now, Where Were We?: Getting Back to Basic Truths That We Have Lost Sight of Through No Fault of My Own
Original price $4.95, purchase price $3.95
Worn paperback
C+

This is another slip in quality for Blount, though it still has its moments, mostly in the last 70 pages.  (Yes, right around the time he starts making fun of Reagan.)  One oddity to this copy is that pages 115 to 146 are missing, and are replaced by duplicates of pages 147 to 178.  So one minute he's talking about power-walking and the next he's talking about cola.

I did like seeing his take on health spas, compared to Jessica Mitford's a decade or two earlier.  (The pieces are from '78 onwards.)  The cover illustration riffs off of a piece imagining himself at the Constitutional Convention, which has a great last line.  His next book, the novel First Hubby, will offer a very different look at politics, which I'll discuss in 1990....

Roseanne: My Life as a Woman

1989, 1990 Harper edition
Roseanne Barr
Roseanne: My Life as a Woman
Possibly bought newish for $5.95
Paperback that's falling apart
B-

I've read all three autobiographies of Roseanne and it's like they're about three different women.  This is the first (and I think the only one I own) and mostly covers her childhood and adolescence, as a Jewish girl in Salt Lake City.  There's not much about her first marriage-- she divorced Bill Pentland and married Tom Arnold the year this edition was published (also the year of her "Star Spangled Banner" rendition)-- and nothing about the child she gave up for adoption at 17.  She does talk about her quick rise as a stand-up comic, but there's nothing about her self-titled sitcom, which started airing in '88.

I avoided that show when it first aired, which is probably just as well, since it took a season or two to become really funny.  I did buy all the seasons on DVD (yes, unlike MTM and AitF, or even childhood fave Gilligan's Island).  Not every season is great, or even good, but I always find what she does interesting.  I felt the same way about this book, although I'm not going to rush out and buy a replacement copy.

Love Is All Around

1989, edition from later that year, from Delta
Robert S. Alley & Irby B. Brown
Love Is All Around: The Making of The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Original price $9.95, purchase price $1.00
Worn paperback
B-

Alley and Brown interviewed many people involved in the MTM Show, with the notable exceptions of Ted Knight (already dead) and Mary herself, although they did talk to her admiring ex, Grant Tinker.  The book would've been stronger if the co-authors didn't repeat themselves, but other than that it's a good look at a classic early '70s sitcom very unlike All in the Family, but nearly as influential and probably more fondly remembered.  Growing up, I watched the show often in syndication (I was nine when the last new episode aired), but I haven't felt like getting it on DVD.  I did watch the 1991 reunion show on VHS a couple years ago though, so the material covered in the book didn't feel too unfamiliar.

One interesting aspect of this book is the unabashed liberalism.  By '89, "the L-word" had become almost obscene (arguably that happened by '84), but both the writers of the book and the writers of the series seem to have been proud of the show's social values.  It was never as political as AitF of course, but feminism was taken for granted, and the way Gordy was treated was less stereotypical than most other sitcoms (including John Amos's next sitcom, Good Times).

If you're curious about the cast currently, especially the women, check out this link:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/09/showbiz/tv/mary-tyler-moore-reunion