Anything Can Happen: Notes on My Inadequate Life and Yours – Hilarious and Witty Tales on Human Comedy

by Roger Rosenblatt

The author of the deft Rules for Aging returns with thirty hilarious and engaging tales about the everyday human comedy, forcing the reader to laugh out loud at the silliness of the world.

Funny, ironic, and penetrating, Anything Can Happen is another rich and rewarding collection that demonstrates the agile wit that has endeared Roger Rosenblatt to readers everywhere.

Genres: Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2003

About the author

ROGER ROSENBLATT, whose work has been published in 14 languages, is the author of five New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and three Times bestsellers, including the memoirs KAYAK MORNING, THE BOY DETECTIVE, and MAKING TOAST, originally an essay in the New Yorker. His newest book is THE STORY I AM, a collection on writing and the writing life.

Rosenblatt has also written seven off-Broadway plays, notably the one-person Free Speech in America, that he performed at the American Place Theater, named one of the Times's "Ten Best Plays of 1991." Last spring at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, he performed and played piano in his play, Lives in the Basement, Does Nothing, which will go to the Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook, and the Flea Theater in New York in 2021. He also wrote the screenplay for his bestselling novel LAPHAM RISING, to star Frank Langella, Stockard Channing, and Bobby Cannavale, currently in production.

The Distinguished Professor of English and Writing at SUNY Stony Brook/Southampton, he formerly held the Briggs-Copeland appointment in creative writing at Harvard, where he earned his Ph.D. Among his honors are two George Polk Awards; the Peabody, and the Emmy, for his essays at Time magazine and on PBS; a Fulbright to Ireland, where he played on the Irish International Basketball Team; seven honorary doctorates; the Kenyon Review Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement; and the President's Medal from the Chautauqua Institution for his body of work.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to describe this terrific book of essays by Rosenblatt. Some are really, really short. Can four words constitute an essay? Some are surrealistic. Some are satiric. Some are charmingly reminiscent. Some are even sentimental, in a strange way. And some combine elements from two or more of these adjectives. The book should probably not be read straight through, but even in small portions it won't last long--read straight through, it will take less than an evening. But there's a lot of wisdom, humor and pleasure in this small package.

[Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

- many of the mini-essays collected here are simply brilliant, original, and funny
- some favourite quotations: "If triangles had a God, it would have three sides." Montesquieu
"Light is the shadow of God." Plato
"If you hold The Great Gatsby upside down, and shake it hard enough, the only
real human being who falls out is Wilson the garage-man." Rosenblatt

[Meri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Clever. Witty.

[Jamey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as humorous as I would've hoped, but it definitely had its moments.