Coyote V. Acme

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Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Feb 9, 2002 - Humor - 128 pages

Twenty-two side-splitting glimpses into some oddball corners of the American mind from bestselling author Ian Frazier.

The title essay of Coyote v. Acme, Frazier's second collection of humorous essays, imagines the opening statement of an attorney representing cartoon character Wile E. Coyote in a product liability suit against the Acme Company, supplier of unpredictable rocket sleds and faulty spring-powered shoes. Other essays are about Bob Hope's golfing career, a commencement address given by a Satanist college president, a suburban short story attacked by the Germans, the problem of issues versus non-issues, and the theories of revolutionary stand-up comedy from Comrade Stalin.

From first to last, this is Frazier at his hilarious best.

 

Selected pages

Contents

The Last Segment
3
From the Bank with Your Money on Its Mind
8
Webbing
12
Boswells Life of Don Johnson
18
Where the Bodies Are Buried
23
Brandy by Firelight
27
Child of War
30
Thanks for the Memory
32
Have You Ever
68
Lintons Whatnots
74
Issues and Nonissues
82
Line 46a
88
Dial WHY WORK
92
The Frankest Interview Yet
95
The Novels Main Character
100
Your Face or Mine
105

Coyote v Acme
40
In the Plain Air
47
Ask Sherman Strong
55
The Afternoon of June 8 1991
64
Making Movies in New York
108
Stalins Chuckle
113
Copyright

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About the author (2002)

Ian Frazier is the author of Great Plains, The Fish's Eye, On the Rez, Family, and Travels in Siberia, as well as Dating Your Mom, Lamentations of the Father, and The Cursing Mommy's Book of Days. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, he lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

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