by Eli Siegel
The author who wrote, “Don’t shake the hand of reality with one finger,” has many maxims in this book—humorous, pointed, making for deeper, clearer, and more cheerful thought.
With drawings by Chaim Koppelman, distinguished American artist.
Eli Siegel “can be hilariously funny, but he can also be uncannily profound.” —Kenneth Rexroth, New York Times Book Review
“These succinct descriptions of things and situations are not only sharply witty, like those of the French master La Rochefoucauld; they surely have a musical turn of phrase that makes one smile, chuckle, want to tell somebody right away. But the one quality above all is this: the maxims arise from a new way of seeing the world. There isn’t a cynical, sarcastic idea or phrase in these over 800 sentences. To have humor that does not arise from contempt for people or things is rare in this world. The maxims achieve grandly their lovely and kind purpose, to have one ‘appreciate the tremendously puzzling and yet benign universe.'” —Dorothy Koppelman, from Foreword