Rating: 
Summary: great read
Review: Great if you like Steve Martin and you get his unique sense of humor. If you liked the movies LA Story and Roxanne you'll love this off-beat collection of short stories. Good stuff!
Rating: 
Summary: Take it or leave it
Review: I've always considered Steve Martin a genius. His stand-up comedy, while full of slapstick, is also quite intellectual at times. Subtlety and irony are themes which often abound in his comedic work, and they come to the forefront in "Pure Drivel," a series of essays which can be read cover to cover in ninety minutes.There are moments of laugh-out-loud enjoyment, such as "Side Effects." Other essays, which deal with MENSA, Martin's own birdbath, prescription narcotics and a variety of wide-ranging topics, range from mildly amusing to humorous. While none of it is dull--thanks in large part to the brevity of the essays--there's nothing here which is terribly memorable. The many fans of Steve Martin will enjoy this book, as I did, but I'm not sure he'll win new converts with it. Much more highly recommended is the novella, "Shopgirl," a legitimate attempt at fiction writing. Martin succeeded in spades, which only supports my claim that he can do just about everything in the entertainment industry.
Rating:
Summary: Pure silliness
Review: It strikes me that this book provided Jack Handey (of Saturday Night Live's "Deep Thoughts" fame) with a great deal of inspiration. This book is very cute. The essays are fun to read if you're sitting around with loved ones and passing time. In my family we like to gather and read an essay out loud - laugh, and then pass the book on to the next family member to read. We do the same thing with Dave Barry's material.
Rating: 
Summary: Pure Fun
Review: For those few people who do not know that Steve Martin is truly a multi-talented comic genius, Pure Drivel will be a book that will convince you. Originally written as essays for The New Yorker magazine, this collection is full of diverse and insanely funny pieces, with titles like 'Taping My Friends' (funny transcripts of taped conversations with unsuspecting friends), 'Writing Is Easy' (including why writer's block is a myth and why to avoid the word "Dagnabbit"), and 'Michael Jackson's Old Face' (no explanation necessary). Anyone looking for a retreat to something truly out of the ordinary should find this book just what they are looking for.
Rating:
Summary: A swinging... sex... god.
Review: There can be no disputing the fact that Steve Martin is a comic genius. He also happens to be an exceptionally bright human being with a love for writing - but also what appears to be a visible craving for people to consider him an exceptionally bright human being. Sometimes this seems to get in the way of what is ordinarily solid, but not especially overwhelming art. In the case of his plays (Picasso at the Lapin Agile) and his novellas (Shopgirl), I would argue that Steve is a far better writer when he loses himself, and captures the subtleties of normal, daily life (rather than the punchlines of his amazing comedy acts) with its poignant moments and quiet instances of futility and despair. But thankfully for you - who probably doesn't look to Steve Martin for instances of futility and despair - this collection of shorts taken primarily from the back page of The New Yorker is an absolute laugh riot - for some. I have found that those who are Steve Martin fans from his stand-up days tend to like this book better than those who only know him from his recent films. For those in the former category, I think it helps to read this book as Steve might have spoken the words. Of his three books, I most highly suggest this one. It's what you want from Steve Martin. Yet, there is no substitute for the man himself, even though sometimes, I wonder if comedy isn't more of an obstacle for Steve than a cure.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: After reading Shopgirl, I was completely blown away by Steve Martin's talent. This guy is much more then an actor/comedian. I am now pursuing his other books to find out what makes him the master of the written word. The second book I read is Pure Drivel. This is a departure from Shopgirl. Shopgirl follows a defined storyline with defined characters much like a typical novel. Pure Drivel is a collection of short pieces he wrote primarily for The New Yorker. Each piece is vastly different from the other covering one creative topic after another. The approach he takes and the twists he creates are hilarious. An example from one of his especially funny topics 'Changes in the Memory After Fifty': "There are several theories that explain memory problems of advancing age. One is that the brain is full. One solution for an older man is to take all the superfluous data swirling around in the brain and download it into the newly large stomach where there is plenty of room." As intelligently accidental as it may seem, Martin has clearly done his homework. One piece in particular comes to mind: 'The Sledgehammer: How It Works' Martin opens this piece stating that many suffer from 'sledgehammer anxiety'. "The old ways still work for me. Much of the initial fear from its use comes from a failure to understand just how it works." This may sound silly and it's meant to bring a chuckle from the reader considering its topic is... a sledgehammer, but it triggered a prompt that I remembered reading from The Writer's Idea Book by Jack Heffron. Heffron writes "Begin a scene with a line you've overheard someone say recently. It needn't be a catchy or powerful line. Something mundane will work: "How much are these pants?" If you're good I'll let you pick out some candy at the counter." Begin there, and move forward, providing a completely different setting and context for the line." This is exactly what Martin did. Along with humor and everyday topics of discussion, there is a vast amount of vocabulary and subjects involved that the average person may not understand, hence, triggering the "I don't get it". Terms such as tawdry, stultify, perambulate, aft, fulcrum, feldspar, dirge and slaver may require a dictionary. Subjects Martin refers to such as an Oushak rug, a Doric column, the Chinese goddess of song, Socrates, Plato, Raphael, Rembrandt, the Pantheon, Newton and Schrodinger may not be well known to everyone to follow along with the reading. I urge anyone who has intelligence for real writing and a well-rounded education of the world around us to read this. This is far from the typical celebrity spewing words on paper. If you get the chance, rent the audio from your local library or the-like. Hearing this in Martin's voice only adds to his work. In my opinion, Steve Martin is brilliant!
Rating:
Summary: The audio might have been better
Review: I am a great Steve Martin fan and looked forward to this book, which I just discovered the other day. He introduces the pieces in this book as "little candy kisses, after-dinner mints to the big meal of literature" which made me chuckle right away! I was laughing just reading the contents pages/essay titles at the beginning of the book: "Mars Probe Finds Kittens", "Artist Lost to Zoloft", "How I Joined Mensa", "In Search of the Wily Filipino". The first couple of stories were amusing and then I started skipping around and then I decided I was glad the book was so short. There is no doubt that Mr. Martin is a very clever, multi-faceted, multi-talented person. However, upon finishing this book, I decided that I would rather watch him perform than read his comedy. Perhaps I would have liked this better as an audio book.
Rating:
Summary: 4.5* Drivelous!
Review: Steve Martin's collection of "New Yorker" short pieces is so intellectually inspired, that one is tempted to analyze it and perhaps alienate potential readers. So, I will restrain from doing that. Nor will I try to imitate his inimitable style (uh oh, too late!). On with the review: This is a hilarious, smarmily profound (in the manner that Martin seems to have invented), clever, wise, stimulating, and yes, laugh-out-loud (Martin could do a whole essay on that overused phrase) funny book. As a slim volume (115 pages) it's a bit pricey, but the material is so dense, so rich with humor, that even the least of these is worth reading several times over. Martin absolutely skewers the trendy in such pieces as "Closure" and "On Writing": "Because topics are in such short supply, I have provided a few... 'Naked Belligerent Panties': This is a good sexy title with a lot of promise...
Something about how waves at the beach just keep coming and coming and how amazing it is (I smell a best-seller here).
'Visions of Melancholy from a Fast-Moving Train': Some foreign writer is right now rushing to his keyboard, ready to pound on it like Horowitz." Like Bill Murray, Martin can both inhabit and distance himself from his targets, and he is a master of light-hearted mockery: In "Dear Amanda," as Joey, he writes "It was a lucky coincidence that my cat leapt on your speed-dial button last night, as it gave us a chance to talk again. Afterwards, I was wondering what you meant when you said, 'It's over, Joey, get it into your head.'" Martin's own topics are mostly about the arts in general, and writing in particular. He has a knack for the throwaway line (from "Times Roman Font..."): "Bobby Brainard, a writer living in an isolated cabin in Montana, who is in fact the only writer living in an isolated cabin in Montana who is not insane..."), as well as the pithy observation (from Hissy Fit: "He fails to see that Los Angeles is a city of abundant and compelling almosts."). He writes movingly and with great subtlety in a tribute to Walter Matthau that doesn't read like a tribute ("Michael Jackson's Old Face"). And there's his extraordinary tale of irony (the clash, I suppose, of text and subtext) in the very funny "Drivel": "She had painted a tabletop still life that was a conceptual work in that it had no concept. Thus the viewer became a 'viewer,' who looked at a painting, which became a 'painting...' Dolly could take the infinitesimal pause to imply the quotations around a word (she could also indicate italics with just a twist of her voice)." She breaks up with him when he actually likes one of her paintings "without any irony whatsoever." Every once in a while, in the midst of the non-sequiturs and wise observations, there is a phrase or sentence (only once, a story, "Bad Dog") that sounds off, or a bit lazy, or just sophomoric. For example, after this wonderful exchange (from "Lolita at Fifty"): "'Name?' 'Lo-lee-tah.' She spoke her name like a steam radiator with consonants," Martin follows with "'Last name?' 'Lolita Rooney-Burton-Winn-Fortensky-Guccioni,' she said, omitting a few names and adding a few to jazz it up." Or in "Side Effects," in the middle of a string of increasingly outrageous patter (like his early "What I Believe" performance), he writes " If this (i.e., secondary sexual side effects) happens, women should write a detailed description of their last three sexual encounters and mail to me, Bob, trailer 6, Fancyland Trailer Park, Encino, CA. OR e-mail me at 'hotguy.com.'" Too easy. But this is a wonderfully funny book by the master himself, one of the few comic geniuses of the last 100 years. In his writing and performance, he balances the intellectual and the plain silly, pomposity and minimalism, and finds the grain of truth at the heart of humor. When he received the first "Jack Benny Award" from UCLA many years ago, he accepted it with great solemnity, and then (after a perfectly timed pause), he bounded gleefully up and down the stage like a small child. Highly recommended writing which satisfies more with each reading.
Rating:
Summary: Intellectual wit and just plain funny stuff
Review: Steve Martin is as good a writer as he is a comedian, and these short stories/essays are as fine and funny and intelligent as anything he's ever done. The paperback edition contains an additional three pieces not in the hardcover, but the audiobook may be the best way to go - these pieces are even funnier when delivered dryly by Martin himself. Great stuff!
Rating:
Summary: WARNING: This audiobook is brilliant.
Review: WARNING:You may not want to listen to it while driving, due to the danger of prolonged laughter causing you to pass out. You may not want to quote this book, due to the danger that you will want to continuing speaking brilliantly, until you find you have infact recited the entire book.
Once you begin listening, it almost too much. Every essay is brilliant. Every short story is sublime. When you are done, one is left in awe of America's foremost comic philosopher.
Thank you Steve Martin, for writing this book.
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