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kerplunk stories
Kerplunk!: Stories
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List Price: $13.00
Our Price: $10.40
Your Save: $ 2.60 ( 20% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 817
EAN: 9780743280501
ISBN: 0743280504
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: 2008-09-30
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Editorial Reviews:
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Patrick F. McManus's gently comic stories about outdoor life have earned him millions of fans worldwide. With Kerplunk!, McManus delivers a collection of folksy, wonderfully wise depictions of country life worthy of Mark Twain. In these tall tales, McManus and his buddies learn how not to net a fish, why you should never get your hair cut by someone who's mad at you, what to do when a deer wanders into camp but your sleeping bag has frozen shut, and how to avoid bird-dog flatulence. Traveling the highways and byways of the Pacific Northwest, the delightful backcountry characters of Kerplunk! understand how a life of hunting and fishing -- and its inherent potential for misadventure -- can resonate with larger meaning. McManus's characters know exactly why it costs $500 to make a fly lure that retails for $2; why installing a boat trailer hookup can lead to divorce; and, most important, why you should always listen for the sound of your fishing line hitting the water -- because in life as it is in fishing, you don't know you're in the water until you hear the kerplunk! These wry, curmudgeonly tales appeal to real outdoorsmen and the armchair variety alike. Often nostalgic, occasionally philosophical, and always funny, the stories in Kerplunk! reaffirm Patrick F. McManus's reputation as an American classic.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Laugh out loud stories for people that love the outdoors ...
Comment: and for folks that need reasons not to go out. (At least you'll laugh about the problems you are missing.)
McManus is one of those authors whose books don't need to be read in any particular order, and since I have a "complete" collection, I thought I would review his output on the occasion of the most recent addition.
It started out pretty well for McManus over 40 years ago when he was in college:
"When I entered his office, the dean glanced up at me sternly, a faculty countenance with which I was not unfamiliar.
"Oh, it's you, McManus," he said, brightening. "I just wanted to tell you I enjoyed very much that little story of yours in the literary magazine about the lady who kept things. Quite good! Excellent, in fact!"
"I'm unsure what field of scholarship the dean pursued, but probably not literary criticism. Nevertheless, the dean's nugget of praise has remained in my psychic poke for forty years and more, and from time to time I take it out and bask in its healing glow. Never ignore or forget any bit of praise for your writing, deserved or not. Praise possesses excellent restorative properties, particularly for the writer of humor."
[Great advice, frankly. Is it any wonder I treasure every Helpful vote, and mourn each Unhelpful vote here on Amazon?]
It's impossible to rank McManus's books in any particular order. Even the weakest are relatively weak only because there are less laugh out loud moments. There are always some, that's for sure. Here are a few favorites:
A Fine and Pleasant Misery -- "Personally, I miss the old-fashioned misery of old fashioned camping."
They Shoot Canoes, Don't They? (Owlet Book) -- "Not wishing to embarrass them any more than was absolutely necessary, Retch and I just let on as if everything was normal and if that scarcely a day went by that we didn't see people in funny costumes hammering nails into rock."
Into the Twilight, Endlessly Grousing -- ""Your smoking them is bad for my health."
"That's because you're a panty-waist," he said. "This is a fine cigar, and if you had any taste at all, you'd appreciate its lovely aroma. Hemingway always brought me a couple boxes from Cuba when he came up to hunt with me in Idaho. Now. there was a man! They don't make men like Hem anymore, yourself being a case in point."
The Bear in the Attic -- ""Now, Buck, this is probably something you don't know, but cute is one of nature's devices for preserving its young. It doesn't apply to just animals either. Many a dumb and useless human being has survived and prospered for no other reason than the good luck of being cute."
McManus is as close as we'll get to a living Mark Twain. A treasure indeed.
Robert C. Ross 2009
Customer Rating:
Summary: Premature
Comment: Another collection of Patrick McManus' short stories. This review is a bit premature, since I've not yet read the book (It's not Christmas yet). BUT, Patrick McManus' stuff is consistently good enough that I ordered me and my dad a copy of this book. I introduced my dad to McManus's work years ago when he was recuperating from a hernia operation. He laughed and laughed, but still fussed at me for making his stitches hurt. If you like camping, hunting and/or fishing, or like reading about boys and the mischief they get into, you'll love Patrick McManus!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: McManus is the greatest.
Comment: McManus is my favorite humorist. This book is a compilation of his articles in Outdoor Life. Not quite up to his other books, but he still gets some good ones off.
Customer Rating:
Summary: You just must read this book for getting your sides split.
Comment: These books by McManus are the best for making you remember what it was like growing up when kids were real kids. As you read, the world melts away and entertains you as if you were really there.
Customer Rating:
Summary: laugh out loud funny
Comment: This is the first audio book I have gotten from this author. I made a deal with my self to listen to audio books only while driving. I started laughing so hard I had to pull the car over so I wouldn't wreck the car. It should come with a warning DANGER LAUGHING AND DRIVING COULD WRECK THE CAR.
surprisingly, My husband listened to this one and liked it. Kerplunk may of been my first book but it won't be my last. I'll just have to learn how to drive and laugh out loud.
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