If you are enthralled by Trillin's sharp insights and clever wit, and his devotion to his family, you can never get enough of this genius. May he live forever, so long as he keeps writing.
Calvin (Bud) Marshall Trillin is an American journalist, humorist, and novelist. He is best known for his humorous writings about food and eating, but he has also written much serious journalism, comic verse, and several books of fiction.
Trillin attended public schools in Kansas City and went on to Yale University, where he served as chairman of the Yale Daily News and became a member of Scroll and Key before graduating in 1957; he later served as a trustee of the university. After a stint in the U.S. Army, he worked as a reporter for Time magazine before joining the staff of The New Yorker in 1963. His reporting for The New Yorker on the racial integration of the University of Georgia was published in his first book, An Education in Georgia. He wrote the magazine's "U.S. Journal" series from 1967 to 1982, covering local events both serious and quirky throughout the United States.
I do love Calvin Trillin, don't get me wrong, and he's just as funny in this book as he is in his others. I think. Too many of the essays reference political figures and going ons of the late eighties. And I'm sure his commentary on the subjects is both hilarious and cutting, and was likely very timely, but I have no idea who most of them are, as I was a toddler at the time.
Some of Trillin's targets (from the late 1980's) have lost their topicality, but there is still enough humor--and outrage--to keep readers reading. Of course, in any collection of short pieces like this, it's wise to take only a few at a time. But this is an assortment of quality cookies, not just a jumble of miscellaneous crumbs (with a bow to Trillin's food writing).