Rating: 
Summary: Laugh-out-loud funny to poignantly touching
Review: Martin's ability to elicit a full range of emotions from the reader is unsurpassed. Pure Drivel is an excellent example of that talent -- with pieces that are laugh-out-loud funny to pieces that are poignant and thought-provoking -- Pure Drivel pushes the reader through the entire spectrum. As far as I am concerned, there are few writer's out there who provide this type of entertainment with the written word. If you like the zany and the touching then pick up Pure Drivel -- you will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: an excellent linguistic comedy
Review: what was so interesting for me about this book was the way he dealt with language. he truly has a talent for noticing the absudities in language but he can also expose the beauty in it while making you laugh at the topic as well. very good!
Rating: 
Summary: Steve Martin Raises the Stakes for Comics turned Authors
Review: I was a kid when I read "Cruel Shoes" and quite frankly, I didn't get it. Since then, Steve Martin and I have both grown up, and, as "Pure Drivel" reveals, he is as much a mature writer as he is a versatile actor.I confess to buying the book on tape, in an effort to recreate those golden days of listening to "Let's Get Small" on my home stereo. Having now heard the dry irony, the word play, and the sharp writing skills Martin has presented, I am anxious to read it off the page. At worst, he throws out a couple of Dave Barry-esque observations, but at best, which is throughout most of this work, Steve throws us comedic curveballs. References to Proust, Salinger, and Jackson Pollack prove that Steve expects his audience to be sharp. (Sinbad and Tim Allen don't usually do this). Having seen Martin's playwriting debut (Picasso at the Lapin Agile), and now enjoying "Pure Drivel", I can honestly say that Steve Martin has shown a versatility that is rare in show biz. He's every bit the writer that he is the actor that he is the comedian.
Rating:
Summary: Steve Martin Is Just Plain Funny
Review: I respect this guy so much. Not only is he funny, he's funny, too. Not only is he a funny actor, he a funny writer, too. He's not only a funny man, he a funny man, too.
Rating:
Summary: "Pure Drivel" is an exploration of the power of wit.
Review: I have been an avid fan of Steve Martin for years; I was practically raised on his "Saturday Night Live" appearances. When the opportunity presented itself, I was priveleged to view his play, "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" during it's first run in L.A. A man whom I had regarded before as a simple, talented funnyman instantly became a comic guru. His poignant and insightful views on aging, the nature of intelligence and wit, and art itself were works of a matured genius. So, when "Pure Drivel" turned up on the bookshelf, I grabbed it immediately. Although intentionally lighter fare than his astounding play, this book is by no means less impressive. Martin is able to toy with our expectations as readers; he follows purely impish material with complex insight into human nature and writing. His conclusion especially, will turn the reader's attention to an often overlooked participant in the process of reviewing literature. In conclusion, "Pure Drivel" is a delightful express train to the center of Martin's true comic genius.
Rating:
Summary: Truly a great piece of comedic work
Review: Martin's wit runs rampid throughout this entire book. His sections on writing, Mensa, Walter Matthau, drug warning labels, and life truly lead to knee-slapping laughter.
Rating: 
Summary: I have re-read my book and think I am psychotic
Review: Hi Readers, First, I'm happy to be here on Amazon.com, or any dot com come to think of it. Sometimes, when I'm walking around town, I realize I'm not on a dot com, but rather on a dot street. This makes me very unhappy. However, now that I'm on a dot com, I want to express my hopes that you enjoy my book, which is a collection of comic essays, some of which have appeared in the New Yorker, and the New York times (I was published in the York Times, and when the New one came along, I was very excited). The book has also received many glowing reviews, despite the lousy one a customer has written. This is because that particular reader, I have discovered, read the book upside down. This was a mistake on the reader's part. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the book. Regards, Steve Martin
Rating:
Summary: Steve Martin is funny
Review: I don't know any other writer who combines their intelligence and wit together so well. Each little story not only is funny, but stylistically different. In other words, there are laughs coming from all over the place. And since each story is different, you never see it coming, and that is what makes Steve Martin so great. So disregard the two-star review before me.
Rating:
Summary: Hysterical!!!
Review: I have read all of the recent books from Jerry Seinfeld, Dennis Miller, Drew Carrey, George Carlin, etc and Steve Martin's book is the funniest. From "Times Roman Font Announces Shortage of Periods" (a whole chapter with only one period) to "I Love Loosely" (a take-off of "I Love Lucy") this book had me in stiches. I only wish it wasn't so short.
Rating: 
Summary: I would have to forgo novelette and use novel-lite.
Review: While presenting an amusing set of ancedotes (most in the Nicholas Baker rather than predected Steve Martin vein), there just does not seem to be enough here to justify a book. If these short collections could have been wrapped in an insight into the author (which there is not any of), then they may have come across as a body of work large enough to stand alone by that illustrious title "book".
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