Simple Grifts: A Comedy of Social Justice

by Max Cossack

Professor Soren Pafko has made a life and career out of lying, conniving, manipulating, and abusing everyone in his path. So far, it’s working great: he’s Chair of his College’s Department of Comparative Literature; he’s leader of the local chapter of the Democratic Communists of America; and when he wants to cheat on his wife, he’s got his pick of women who think he’s the second coming of Che Guevara. In short, his life is peachy. But when he flunks local yokel Gus Dropo’s teenage son for a politically incorrect classroom comment, everything in Professor Pafko’s world begins to go hilariously wrong.
From early reviews:
“Max Cossack is the funniest political writer in decades.”
“...one of the bargains of the year. Highly recommended!”
“Still giggling”
“Great read, completely unpredictable and kept me up nights to finish…Five stars and two thumbs up.”
“Witty, great fun, fast-paced…best of all, lots of laughs”
“Great Grifter Story”
“Hilarious”

Genres: Humor

212 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 24, 2019

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great grifter story

Pretty funny, combination of grifter vs grifter, with the good guys being pretty obvious. Still, putting in the sideways jabs at the PC Socialist/Communist personas really adds to the humor. Good follow up to the two prior stories from Max. Almost as good storyline as those from AmmoGRRL!!

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun tricks and commies

I was drawn to the book because I hate Marxism and PC. I thought it was going to be an over the top spoof of modern wokeness. Instead it turned out to be a fun tell of a nasty radical getting hoisted on his own petard. A lot of fun and highly recommended.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun.

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

Initially I wasn't too sure, but this turned out to be a clever satire about self important elites vs the ones they dislike. While some of the swipes are obvious, others are clever, enough to make me laugh and share with a friend. I was unaware that this book was part of a series (this is the third). It works well as a stand alone book, but I enjoyed it so much I am going back to read the two previous books and am looking forward to reading book four.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professor Soren Pafko is everything you love to hate about pretentious Machiavellian academics in this lampoon of scholarly life. When his colleague embroils herself in the plot to take him down a peg, you're right with the conspiracy their demands on his resourcefulness, laughing along with them at his gullibility and the extent of his enormous ego. It's all good fun and makes for a satisfying read - until the end, when the plot seems to get out of the author's control, and he chooses a rather implausibly extreme way to end it all. That ending, which was not on par with the rest of the novel, cast a pall over the good stuff that preceded it and dragged it down into mediocrity. Too bad, because except for its inconsistency, it would have been a great story.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Timely and clever

Lively caper set on a modern college campus. Writing is brisk, the ending is happy. The main flaws lie in the fact that it is very short, more of a long short story rather than a novel. The college setting is generic; the characters have a lot of potential, but they never get developed. The plot goes off too smoothly. I enjoyed it but I think the author, who has a nice eye, could have made this a richer experience. I will certainly keep reading him.