Rating: 
Summary: Very Funny
Review: "Without Feathers" was Woody Allen's second collection of humorous pieces, and probably his best. These originally appeared in the early 1970's, in magazines like "The New Yorker" and "The New Republic."Some are short stories, like "No Kaddish for Weinstein" and "The Whore of Mensa." There are two plays, "Death" (the inspiration for Allen's "Shadows and Fog"), and the much better "God", a masterpiece of absurdity. There are parodies of Encyclopedia Brown ("Match Wits with Inspector Ford") and Henrik Ibsen (the hysterical "Lovborg's Women Considered"), irreverent essays on English literature and civil disobedience, reviews of some very bizarre ballets, and more. "Without Feathers" is fantastic and, as a bonus, much less expensive than many inferior humor books.
Rating: 
Summary: Mostly hilarious
Review: A collection of Allen's comedic writings. This is for the most part solid, laugh-out-loud Allen parodies and absurdity. Allen is at his best when parodying, say, the great Russians writers ("Should I marry W.? Not if she won't tell me the other letters in her last name.") or Ibsen, as in "Lovborg's Women Considered," or just being plain absurd, as in the superbly useless "Slang Origins." Throughout, the neurotic Allen themes resonate --- fear of death and intimacy, etc. There are a couple of low points, like "God (A Play)," which is somewhat flat compared to the true absurdity of the meta-textual pioneers it parodies like Pirandello and Ionesco. But in al, this is prime, vintage Allen, and at his best, he's note-perfect.
Rating:
Summary: Mostly hilarious
Review: A collection of Allen's comedic writings. This is for the most part solid, laugh-out-loud Allen parodies and absurdity. Allen is at his best when parodying, say, the great Russians writers ("Should I marry W.? Not if she won't tell me the other letters in her last name.") or Ibsen, as in "Lovborg's Women Considered," or just being plain absurd, as in the superbly useless "Slang Origins." Throughout, the neurotic Allen themes resonate --- fear of death and intimacy, etc. There are a couple of low points, like "God (A Play)," which is somewhat flat compared to the true absurdity of the meta-textual pioneers it parodies like Pirandello and Ionesco. But in al, this is prime, vintage Allen, and at his best, he's note-perfect.
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book so much I had to PERFORM it...
Review: After stealing a well-worn and extremely thumbed copy of this book from my sister, I loved it so much that I just had to talk my drama group into putting on a production of "God".
Rating:
Summary: tickled with Feathers
Review: Comedy legend Buster Keaton was hilarious because he had mastered the art of deadpan. His face was set in a permanently sad expression, which only made his antics and predicaments all the funnier. He never let on that he was being funny; and that makes the audience laugh all the harder. Imagine being able to create the same effect in the written word. Woody Allen has been able to do precisely that. He never lets the reader know that the punch line is coming, so it hits the funny bone with full force. His book Without Feathers should never be read in polite company, since it causes the reader to break into hysterical peals of laughter that cannot be stopped. I was rendered helpless while reading his material: "Do I believe in God? I did until Mother's accident. She fell on some meat loaf, and it penetrated her spleen. She lay in a coma for months, unable to do anything but sing "Granada" to an imaginary herring. Why was this woman in the prime of life so afflicted - because in her youth she dared to defy convention and got married with a brown paper bag on her head? And how can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter? I am plagued by doubts. What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet. If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank." Without Feathers was a bestseller in the early seventies, but it is about time a younger audience learns of this book. Don't miss the short stories of "The Whore of Mensa" and "If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists". And for heaven's sake, try not to eat or drink while you read it, or you will be laughing substances out of your nose.
Rating:
Summary: tickled with Feathers
Review: Comedy legend Buster Keaton was hilarious because he had mastered the art of deadpan. His face was set in a permanently sad expression, which only made his antics and predicaments all the funnier. He never let on that he was being funny; and that makes the audience laugh all the harder. Imagine being able to create the same effect in the written word. Woody Allen has been able to do precisely that. He never lets the reader know that the punch line is coming, so it hits the funny bone with full force. His book Without Feathers should never be read in polite company, since it causes the reader to break into hysterical peals of laughter that cannot be stopped. I was rendered helpless while reading his material: "Do I believe in God? I did until Mother's accident. She fell on some meat loaf, and it penetrated her spleen. She lay in a coma for months, unable to do anything but sing "Granada" to an imaginary herring. Why was this woman in the prime of life so afflicted - because in her youth she dared to defy convention and got married with a brown paper bag on her head? And how can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter? I am plagued by doubts. What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet. If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank." Without Feathers was a bestseller in the early seventies, but it is about time a younger audience learns of this book. Don't miss the short stories of "The Whore of Mensa" and "If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists". And for heaven's sake, try not to eat or drink while you read it, or you will be laughing substances out of your nose.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny, I Think Not
Review: Every review that I have looked at for the book Without Feathers by Woody Allen pretty much starts out saying how hilarious this is. I'm not. The reason I picked up the book was, to laugh out loud. I didn't. The story was horribly boring, and while I should have been laughing out loud I was yawning. Twice, did I fall asleep reading the story and not during the middle of the night as one would suppose, but at about noon on a sunny weekend. Only in two parts of the book did anything appear remotely amusing to me.
I love how Mr. Allen made fun of history, and normally serious topics, but he did it in such a way that I feel he was overdoing it. The skit-like format of the book didn't do much for me either. This procedure didn't allow anything to flow, so it was very abrupt and brief in places. I don't know about what other people care for but I do not like stories that don't seem to flow well. I would ly confused in my chair by many of things that occurred, longing to read more about it, but the format doesn't allow for such things.
It's nice to see that someone can make a joke out of life, and death, but Mr. Allen seems to be going a liitle to far. In this Mr. Allen created two different plays, always ending with someone dying. Maybe I'm just odd but something tells me that death isn't something to laugh at. Along with that seeing the ghost of your dead brother isn't funny, but Mr. Allen goes a little overboard trying to make it so by making the two characters of that 'skit' start singing a boyhood song and having the living one try to walk through a wall. Spirits of the dead should be respected and sometimes feared, but not made a mockery of.
I'm going to say it again, maybe I'm just a little strange but at no point did I get to laugh out loud
Rating:
Summary: Very, very funny
Review: Great gift for your graduate! Humor in the same vein as his early films, the usual crazy mix of sex, the metaphysical, and philosophical ponderings. Great blend of intelligence and silliness!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully absurd...
Review: I have never written a review before, but as this book is one of the funniest things I've ever stumbled upon... here goes. I was lucky enough to find Without Feathers about 10 years ago, in a hardcover edition along with Getting Even and Side Effects. I decided to take a quick look through it on the drive home from the book store (I was'nt the one driving!) and within minutes I was laughing uncontrolably! After the first paragraph I simply could'nt put it down. The other people in the car demanded to know what was so funny, but my attempts to read out loud were useless as I was crying with laughter and could no longer see the page!?! I handed the book over to one of my friends for him to read, and eventually we had to pull the car off the road due to the histerical giggling that ensued! "A Brief, Yet Helpful, Guide To Civil Disobedience" is possibly the funniest thing I've ever read!?! A decade has gone by since I first read these books and they are still as funny and unique. I read them whenever I'm dangerously close to forgeting how cathartic sheer silliness can be! Truly joyful prose!
Rating:
Summary: I Ruined This Book
Review: I love books, and I try my best to take care of them, but I failed miserably with my copy of "Without Feathers". Woody Allen's short masterpiece was so sadistically funny that I couldn't control my bodily functions... initial chortles soon gave way to sprays of guffawing spitall and drenching tears of laughter. By the time I'd finished, the paperback was reduced to a soaking mess of sidesplitting slobber.
It's the kind of book that, years later, you suddenly remember a particularly poignant passage, and you erupt into uncontrollable giggles, much to the bemusement of those around you.
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