Lend me your alphorn: Further tales of life in Switzerland

by Eugene V. Epstein

Book by Epstein, Eugene V

163 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[jules · Rating 4 out of 5]

as of writing this i’m the only person to write a review for this book on goodreads, this is very exciting to me. i found this book on the outside used book rack at the strand and it’s become my subway book since.

i thoroughly enjoyed this book. the humor is incredibly dry but it often gave me a good chuckle. i can also imagine that the jokes in this book were all the rage in 1977 when the book was published. the book is an americans comedic telling of moving to switzerland and begins with a pseudo recommendation style and then just devolves into stories.

here are some of my favorite quotes:
- “I’m not quite so sure what technology and efficiency and data processing will leave us with once the human element has been even more efficiently eliminated.”
- In talking about men: “We are the mallards of the genus homo sapiens, but instead of flying and croaking “quack-quack”, we drive wildly about the neighborhood, disturbing the peace with our “honk-honks”.”
- On “camp”: “Camp means something so bad, so banal and inane — in whose eyes I don’t know — that it becomes “in” again.”