What do you think?
Rate this book
Guys and Dolls
Meet Nathan Detroit and his long-suffering fiancée, Miss Adelaide; Sky Masterson and Miss Sarah Brown; and Nicely-Nicely Jones. Take in the atmosphere of the Great White Way in its heyday at a little speakeasy called Good Time Charley's. Here are thirty-two of Damon Runyon's best-loved, most "Runyonesque" stories, each woven around the mobsmen, chorus girls, gamblers, and racetrack hustlers of the Broadway he knew and loved. Runyon captures with an acute eye and ear the colorful lives and language of a bygone era, one that lives on in our imagination—and on stage.
411 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1932
23 people are currently reading
1282 people want to read
About the author
Damon Runyon
225 books84 followersSuch volumes as
Guys and Dolls
(1931), the basis for a musical of the same name on Broadway, collect stories of known American writer Alfred Damon Runyon about the underworld of New York.
A family in Manhattan, Kansas, reared this newspaperman. His grandfather, a printer from New Jersey, relocated to Manhattan, Kansas in 1855, and his father edited his own newspaper in the town. In 1882, people forced father of Runyon forced to sell his newspaper, and the family moved westward. The family eventually settled in 1887 in Pueblo, Colorado, where Runyon spent the rest of his youth. He began to work in the newspaper trade under his father in Pueblo. People named a field, the repertory theater company, and a lake in his honor. He worked for various newspapers in the area of the Rocky Mountains and let stand a change in the spelling of his last name from "Runyan" to "Runyon."
In 1898, Runyon enlisted in the Army to fight in the Spanish-American War. The service assigned himto write for the Manila Freedom and Soldier's Letter.
He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To New Yorkers of his generation, a "Damon Runyon character" evoked a distinctive social type from the Brooklyn or Midtown demi-monde. The adjective "Runyonesque" refers to this type of character as well as to the type of situations and dialog that Runyon depicted. He spun humorous tales of gamblers, hustlers, actors, and gangsters, few of whom go by "square" names, preferring instead colorful monikers such as "Nathan Detroit," "Benny Southstreet," "Big Jule," "Harry the Horse," "Good Time Charley," "Dave the Dude," or "The Seldom Seen Kid." Runyon wrote these stories in a distinctive vernacular style: a mixture of formal speech and colorful slang, almost always in present tense, and always devoid of contractions.
Runyon was also a newspaperman. He wrote the lead article for UP on Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Presidential inauguration in 1933.
Runyon died in New York City from throat cancer in late 1946, at age 66. His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered from an airplane over Broadway in Manhattan by Captain Eddie Rickenbacker on December 18, 1946. The family plot of Damon Runyon is located at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, NY. After Runyon's death, his friend and fellow journalist, Walter Winchell, went on his radio program and appealed for contributions to help fight cancer, eventually establishing the “Damon Runyon Cancer Memorial Fund” to support scientific research into causes of, and prevention of cancer.
A family in Manhattan, Kansas, reared this newspaperman. His grandfather, a printer from New Jersey, relocated to Manhattan, Kansas in 1855, and his father edited his own newspaper in the town. In 1882, people forced father of Runyon forced to sell his newspaper, and the family moved westward. The family eventually settled in 1887 in Pueblo, Colorado, where Runyon spent the rest of his youth. He began to work in the newspaper trade under his father in Pueblo. People named a field, the repertory theater company, and a lake in his honor. He worked for various newspapers in the area of the Rocky Mountains and let stand a change in the spelling of his last name from "Runyan" to "Runyon."
In 1898, Runyon enlisted in the Army to fight in the Spanish-American War. The service assigned himto write for the Manila Freedom and Soldier's Letter.
He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To New Yorkers of his generation, a "Damon Runyon character" evoked a distinctive social type from the Brooklyn or Midtown demi-monde. The adjective "Runyonesque" refers to this type of character as well as to the type of situations and dialog that Runyon depicted. He spun humorous tales of gamblers, hustlers, actors, and gangsters, few of whom go by "square" names, preferring instead colorful monikers such as "Nathan Detroit," "Benny Southstreet," "Big Jule," "Harry the Horse," "Good Time Charley," "Dave the Dude," or "The Seldom Seen Kid." Runyon wrote these stories in a distinctive vernacular style: a mixture of formal speech and colorful slang, almost always in present tense, and always devoid of contractions.
Runyon was also a newspaperman. He wrote the lead article for UP on Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Presidential inauguration in 1933.
Runyon died in New York City from throat cancer in late 1946, at age 66. His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered from an airplane over Broadway in Manhattan by Captain Eddie Rickenbacker on December 18, 1946. The family plot of Damon Runyon is located at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, NY. After Runyon's death, his friend and fellow journalist, Walter Winchell, went on his radio program and appealed for contributions to help fight cancer, eventually establishing the “Damon Runyon Cancer Memorial Fund” to support scientific research into causes of, and prevention of cancer.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
February 26, 2014
There are only three authors whose anthology of short stories I ever really enjoyed and recommended that others read. They were William Sydny Porter (Pen Name: O. Henry), Ray Bradbury, and Damon Runyon.
O. Henry wrote about children, the poor, and the good in almost everyone. Bradbury wrote science fiction, and Runyon wrote about the Broadway of the Roaring Twenties and Gangster era of the nineteen thirties; most famously recounted in the thirty-two short-stories that make up the anthology, "Guys and Dolls".
What fascinated me most about "Guys and Dolls" was the author's uncanny ability to bring a unique era in a place that very few people ever experienced so vividly to life that the reader soon finds himself totally immersed in the everyday dealings of characters with weird names like Regret, Nathan Detroit, Big Nig, Sky Masterson, and Little Miss Marker; just to name a very few.
Those who have never bothered to read the book because they have already seen the play or movie should rethink their decision; because they were based soley upon just one of the thirty-two stories.
The unique local dialect, so cleverly and hilariously mimicked by Mr. Runyon in almost every word of dialogue, is so catchy that my youngest daughter drove me crazy for several weeks after she read "Guys and Dolls", because she insisted upon using the slang and vocabulary in her everyday speech - and extremely well, I must admit.
O. Henry wrote about children, the poor, and the good in almost everyone. Bradbury wrote science fiction, and Runyon wrote about the Broadway of the Roaring Twenties and Gangster era of the nineteen thirties; most famously recounted in the thirty-two short-stories that make up the anthology, "Guys and Dolls".
What fascinated me most about "Guys and Dolls" was the author's uncanny ability to bring a unique era in a place that very few people ever experienced so vividly to life that the reader soon finds himself totally immersed in the everyday dealings of characters with weird names like Regret, Nathan Detroit, Big Nig, Sky Masterson, and Little Miss Marker; just to name a very few.
Those who have never bothered to read the book because they have already seen the play or movie should rethink their decision; because they were based soley upon just one of the thirty-two stories.
The unique local dialect, so cleverly and hilariously mimicked by Mr. Runyon in almost every word of dialogue, is so catchy that my youngest daughter drove me crazy for several weeks after she read "Guys and Dolls", because she insisted upon using the slang and vocabulary in her everyday speech - and extremely well, I must admit.
July 28, 2017
“Guys and Dolls, the stories of Damon Runyon” is a unique collection of short stories, and I have not come across anything quite like it in my reading life. Mr. Runyon’s writing style is distinctive, and unlike any other I have encountered. Like Shakespeare, the more of it you read, the more use to it you become. The collection’s stories are all told from a 1st person unnamed narrator’s perspective about the people he knows/meets in the midtown neighborhood of Broadway. All of the stories were written between 1929 and 1944.
The collection is very humorous, I laughed out loud often while reading it. This was due mainly to the fact that Runyon is the king of understatement. It is a major component of his writing style, as every story in this collection of 32 has more than a few examples of it. Sentences like, “I do not approve of guys using false pretenses with dolls, except of course, when nothing else will do.” abound in this text.
These stories also remind me a lot of the tavern scenes in Shakespeare’s “Henry IV Part I”. The characters are reprobates; the worse society has to offer. However, they are so colorful and good with words that you forget that and have to remind yourself to observe their actions and what they do. By and large they are not good people. There are actually very violent and disturbing aspects to many of these stories. But Runyon’s gift of language dilutes them. The dark elements in this book almost slip by you and the reader must remind themselves from time to time that many of the actions depicted are despicable.
Special mention goes out to the story “A Story Goes with It”, one of the best examples of Runyon’s gift of characterization in the piece.
I would recommend reading “Guys and Dolls” because there is nothing like it in modern literature. I read a few stories in the collection at a time, put the book down, read something else, and then picked it back up again for a few more stories until I had completed it. It keeps it from getting tiresome reading it in that manner.
The collection is very humorous, I laughed out loud often while reading it. This was due mainly to the fact that Runyon is the king of understatement. It is a major component of his writing style, as every story in this collection of 32 has more than a few examples of it. Sentences like, “I do not approve of guys using false pretenses with dolls, except of course, when nothing else will do.” abound in this text.
These stories also remind me a lot of the tavern scenes in Shakespeare’s “Henry IV Part I”. The characters are reprobates; the worse society has to offer. However, they are so colorful and good with words that you forget that and have to remind yourself to observe their actions and what they do. By and large they are not good people. There are actually very violent and disturbing aspects to many of these stories. But Runyon’s gift of language dilutes them. The dark elements in this book almost slip by you and the reader must remind themselves from time to time that many of the actions depicted are despicable.
Special mention goes out to the story “A Story Goes with It”, one of the best examples of Runyon’s gift of characterization in the piece.
I would recommend reading “Guys and Dolls” because there is nothing like it in modern literature. I read a few stories in the collection at a time, put the book down, read something else, and then picked it back up again for a few more stories until I had completed it. It keeps it from getting tiresome reading it in that manner.
August 8, 2019
Classic short stories from the dimmer corners unexplored in the technicolor Broadway version.
June 6, 2017
In the same way that the great Wodehouse gave us a fantasy world of infinitely clever butlers and fatuous wastrels, Damon Runyon created a version of 1930's Broadway, New York City that never existed. In his version, gangsters were fearsome except when their dolls needed them to heel. Runyonesque criminals never do any real harm and can be counted upon to become upright citizens, if only in their own way.
The language of his Broadways seems to never include past tense and always sounds authentic. It should sound authentic; it is a lingo he invented. It is possible that some gunslinger predating Runyon referred to his handgun as a "Hogleg", or a "roscoe" but only in Damon Runyon does the gun slinger ever pull his hogleg and make with the `rudy toot toot'. It is possible that Runyon gave us "Good Time Charley" but I cannot confirm that he was first to refer to the old Army hand grenade as a "pineapple" This invented street language as spoken by charming if vaguely threatening caricatures serves as a marker for the reader that the payoff for this collection of short stories will be in smiles and laughter.
This particular collection, Guys and Dolls, includes the more famous stories. The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown among others will become the most brilliant of Broadway musical comedies, Guys and Dolls. Little Miss Marker will become two movies by the same name, one for the young Shirley Temple, and again for Sara Stimson, her only movie, but backed with the likes of Walter Matthau, Tony Curtis, Julie Andrews, Bob Newhart. Other of the favorites include Butch Minds the Baby, The Lemon Drop Kid and about 30 more. Granted this is a nice collection but what is missing are some earlier or non-Broadway stories. Many years back I was able to read some of his other pieces. Short stories not based on the good citizens of after hours Broadway. I had hoped to find a few in this volume; if only to round out and provide comparisons.
Being hard to find it is these are the stories that would make a Damon Runyon collection complete. That will be the collection that will rate my fifth star.
The language of his Broadways seems to never include past tense and always sounds authentic. It should sound authentic; it is a lingo he invented. It is possible that some gunslinger predating Runyon referred to his handgun as a "Hogleg", or a "roscoe" but only in Damon Runyon does the gun slinger ever pull his hogleg and make with the `rudy toot toot'. It is possible that Runyon gave us "Good Time Charley" but I cannot confirm that he was first to refer to the old Army hand grenade as a "pineapple" This invented street language as spoken by charming if vaguely threatening caricatures serves as a marker for the reader that the payoff for this collection of short stories will be in smiles and laughter.
This particular collection, Guys and Dolls, includes the more famous stories. The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown among others will become the most brilliant of Broadway musical comedies, Guys and Dolls. Little Miss Marker will become two movies by the same name, one for the young Shirley Temple, and again for Sara Stimson, her only movie, but backed with the likes of Walter Matthau, Tony Curtis, Julie Andrews, Bob Newhart. Other of the favorites include Butch Minds the Baby, The Lemon Drop Kid and about 30 more. Granted this is a nice collection but what is missing are some earlier or non-Broadway stories. Many years back I was able to read some of his other pieces. Short stories not based on the good citizens of after hours Broadway. I had hoped to find a few in this volume; if only to round out and provide comparisons.
Being hard to find it is these are the stories that would make a Damon Runyon collection complete. That will be the collection that will rate my fifth star.
January 14, 2018
Piacevole, decisamente leggero, d'evasione. Perché dedicargli del tempo sottraendolo a letture più succose, allora?
1. Intanto, perché è l'edizione che mia suocera si comprò nel marzo 1957, con nome e data scritti sul risguardo con un'impeccabile calligrafia da educanda di una volta. Profumo d'antan.
2. Poi in grato ricordo del film con Marlon Brando, anche se ho scoperto con un milligrammo di disappunto che la storia del film occupa solo il primo capitolo del libro (l'hanno gonfiata un bel po' per farle raggiungere delle dimensioni da film). Il libro è come una serie di telefilm a episodi, e bisogna amare il genere: io in genere, più che i racconti a breve respiro, amo le architetture complesse.
3. Poi per il linguaggio degli scommettitori-malavitosi americani, che la traduttrice si è bravamente industriata a rendere in italiano. Chissà che effetto faceva cinquant'anni fa. Adesso è necessario usare il vocabolario, perché parole come "grascia" e "paìno" non è che risultino poi chiarissime a tutti. E poi "paìno" sul Devoto-Oli non si trova: ho dovuto disseppellire un Palazzi del 1939 per scoprire che vuol dire "zerbinotto".
4. E comunque fa ridere.
1. Intanto, perché è l'edizione che mia suocera si comprò nel marzo 1957, con nome e data scritti sul risguardo con un'impeccabile calligrafia da educanda di una volta. Profumo d'antan.
2. Poi in grato ricordo del film con Marlon Brando, anche se ho scoperto con un milligrammo di disappunto che la storia del film occupa solo il primo capitolo del libro (l'hanno gonfiata un bel po' per farle raggiungere delle dimensioni da film). Il libro è come una serie di telefilm a episodi, e bisogna amare il genere: io in genere, più che i racconti a breve respiro, amo le architetture complesse.
3. Poi per il linguaggio degli scommettitori-malavitosi americani, che la traduttrice si è bravamente industriata a rendere in italiano. Chissà che effetto faceva cinquant'anni fa. Adesso è necessario usare il vocabolario, perché parole come "grascia" e "paìno" non è che risultino poi chiarissime a tutti. E poi "paìno" sul Devoto-Oli non si trova: ho dovuto disseppellire un Palazzi del 1939 per scoprire che vuol dire "zerbinotto".
4. E comunque fa ridere.
January 29, 2016
It's kind of a shame that, good as the musical "Guys and Dolls" is, it's more or less taken Damon Runyon's entire place in the public memory to itself. Runyon's short story anthology of the same name is a minor masterpiece of style over substance. The plots are almost negligible- little character sketches, often farcical in nature, about low-level gangsters, high-level hoods, would-be pimps, players and gamblers in Prohibition-era New York, mostly trying to win a girl's heart or make a quick buck at the races. What sets Runyon apart, and makes you keep reading after the initial novelty has worn off, is the unique, Runyonesque writing style. Written like a semi-literate mobster with delusions of grandeur, these first-person narratives tend to unroll in constant first person, no contractions, never using one word when three roundabout words will do. It's a style instantly recognizable from almost a century of homage and parody, and nobody does it better than Runyon.
May 31, 2011
I went to a top-notch production of Guys and Dolls last week and the artistic director of the theater said the most appalling thing: that most of the people in the audience had probably never heard of Damon Runyon. Oh, tis enough to make a doll despair, or at least develop a cold.
This is one of the great masters of American humor and I'll stake him in a crap game against Mark Twain any time.
This is one of the great masters of American humor and I'll stake him in a crap game against Mark Twain any time.
December 16, 2024
1. Guys and Dolls: or The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown 4/5
2. Blood Pressure 3,75/5
3. Lonely Heart 4/5
4. A Piece of Pie 4,25/5
5. Butch Minds the Baby 3/5
6. Breach of Promise 3,75/5
7. The Snatching of Bookie Bob 3/5
8. The Bloodhounds of Broadway 2/5
9. The Lily of St Pierre 3/5
10. Princess O’Hara 3/5
11. Romance in the Roaring Forties 3/5
12. Madame La Gimp 2,5/5
13. A Very Honourable Guy 3,5/5
14. The Brain Goes Home 4/5
15. Social Error 3/5
16. Undertaker Song 3/5
17. Lillian 4/5
18. Dark Dolores 3,5/5
19. ‘Gentlemen, The King!’ 3/5
20. The Hottest Guy in the World 3/5
October 21, 2023
GREAT fun! Could spend forever with these clowns and the omnipresent anonymous wise guy narrator. Top five stories are A Piece of Pie, Social Error, Romance in the Roaring Forties, The Snatching of Bookie Bob, and Butch Minds the Baby
April 24, 2021
I didn’t like this book at first, the vernacular style was hard to follow and I found myself thinking “Can’t see myself being interested in these Broadway characters”. But the stories grew on me once I’d read 3 or 4 out of the 20.
I particularly liked ‘Lonely Heart’ about Nicely-Nicely Jones who loves eating and gets mixed up in a dangerous marriage and “Breach of Promise”, also about romantic shenanigans.
Runyon’s characters are vivid and colourful and several appear in more than one story. I liked Dave the Dude, Spanish John and Bob the Bookie. In the end I was very charmed by his world of Broadway gamblers and low life’s.
I particularly liked ‘Lonely Heart’ about Nicely-Nicely Jones who loves eating and gets mixed up in a dangerous marriage and “Breach of Promise”, also about romantic shenanigans.
Runyon’s characters are vivid and colourful and several appear in more than one story. I liked Dave the Dude, Spanish John and Bob the Bookie. In the end I was very charmed by his world of Broadway gamblers and low life’s.
May 2, 2022
I took a very leisurely time with these stories, occasionally reading one at bedtime. They were simply delightful. A few were darker than I liked, but that's fair considering the world of gangsters in which these tales are spun.
June 28, 2007
Short Stories. After you read two or three of these, you know exactly what to expect from the rest of them. You start out with your unnamed narrator, who either gets invited along on a caper or sits next to a guy who has a story to tell him. There's lots of gangsters, betting on horses, heartbreak and/or romance, and then comes your twist ending. The plots are simplistic, like Encyclopedia Brown meets Henry O; you can see the twist coming every time, but these stories are mostly about the language. The writing is jaunty, full of 1930s slang and dry wit, often with sly little reversals at the end of a sentence. Kind of like Wodehouse or Hemingway, but with gangsters. And boy are there gangsters. For the most part these are bloodless, lighthearted stories, but people do die -- generally because they had it coming -- though these aren't morality tales. Whatever heroes you get are just as crooked as the people they're killing, but Runyon makes it work. You want your con man to win. Usually, at least; there are a few missteps, and women and children are often left with the short end of the stick.
One of the fun things about these pieces is that Runyon reuses his characters, so you start to feel like you live in his New York. You recognize Ambrose Hammer, the newspaper critic; Good Time Charley, owner of a speakeasy; Regret, the horse player; not to mention Harry the Horse, Spanish John, and Little Isadore. All one big unhappy family. My biggest complaint is that the entire book is in present tense. Don't get me wrong, I like present tense, but this crosses a line. Even events that occurred in the past are told in present tense. I often found myself turned around, unable to tell where, exactly, I was in time. It got slightly easier the more I read, but it never really stopped being confusing.
Some of my favorites: So You Won't Talk (a parrot is the only witness to a murder), A Piece of Pie (a wager on an eating contest), and Breach of Promise (a guy hired to do an inside job). But no one gets off easy in a Runyon story, so if you're sensitive to animal-harm, skip Johnny One-Eye and, to a lesser extent, The Hottest Guy in the World and The Bloodhounds of Broadway. And if you're looking for the story that inspired the musical Guys and Dolls, you want The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown, which, I will also say is a favorite.
One of the fun things about these pieces is that Runyon reuses his characters, so you start to feel like you live in his New York. You recognize Ambrose Hammer, the newspaper critic; Good Time Charley, owner of a speakeasy; Regret, the horse player; not to mention Harry the Horse, Spanish John, and Little Isadore. All one big unhappy family. My biggest complaint is that the entire book is in present tense. Don't get me wrong, I like present tense, but this crosses a line. Even events that occurred in the past are told in present tense. I often found myself turned around, unable to tell where, exactly, I was in time. It got slightly easier the more I read, but it never really stopped being confusing.
Some of my favorites: So You Won't Talk (a parrot is the only witness to a murder), A Piece of Pie (a wager on an eating contest), and Breach of Promise (a guy hired to do an inside job). But no one gets off easy in a Runyon story, so if you're sensitive to animal-harm, skip Johnny One-Eye and, to a lesser extent, The Hottest Guy in the World and The Bloodhounds of Broadway. And if you're looking for the story that inspired the musical Guys and Dolls, you want The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown, which, I will also say is a favorite.
August 13, 2012
This was actually a collection from three short story collections: Guys and Dolls, Blue Plate Special and Money From Home (so I'm hoping I am entering this in the right book slot). Runyon's stories inspired (among other things) the Broadway musical Guys and Dolls. This collection contains numerous short stories on such colorful characters like Dave the Dude, Rusty Charlie, Benny Southstreet, The Brain, Good Time Charley, Nathan Detroit, Big Jule and many others. Most of the stories are darkly humorous (and more than a few have a touch of O. Henry irony). The language and rhythm takes some getting used to; a little Runyon-ese goes a long way. Still, Runyon captures the heart and eccentricity of his world very well, and it was interesting to read some of the stories that inspired the musical. There was one story, Madame La Gimp, I could see being turned into a short play (actually, I heard this story was the basis for a movie, Lady for a Day).
December 11, 2012
Guys and Dolls is the collective name for these short stories, which I believe were made into a musical and a musical-movie. Guys and Dolls takes place in New York in the 1920s and 30s, on Broadway, sort of an underground, gambling, semi-illegal world. There are many interesting characters in this book, such as Nathan Detroit, Sky Masterson, and of course, Nicely-Nicely Jones.
The atmosphere and ambience of the world this book is set in feels very alien, so different from today. Many of the stories are humorous, such as A Piece of Pie, in which two contestants (representing New York and Boston), have an easting competition. Quite amusing.
Guys and Dolls is also written in a style (presumably) like the people in the stories would talk. A "doll" means a woman, "potatoes" means money, etc. etc, and also rambling sentences (like the opening one.)
My blog is at www.novareviews.blogspot.com.
The atmosphere and ambience of the world this book is set in feels very alien, so different from today. Many of the stories are humorous, such as A Piece of Pie, in which two contestants (representing New York and Boston), have an easting competition. Quite amusing.
Guys and Dolls is also written in a style (presumably) like the people in the stories would talk. A "doll" means a woman, "potatoes" means money, etc. etc, and also rambling sentences (like the opening one.)
My blog is at www.novareviews.blogspot.com.
February 24, 2011
Though I expect alot of people don't even remember the musical Guys and Dolls or the film Little Miss Marker, I do. If you do remember these adaptations of Damon Runyon's works, after reading the book you will also remember how Hollywood hates to do an accurate thematic adaptation. Honestly, Hollywood has gotten better about their adaptations in recent years.
For example, Little Miss Marker was a cute film with Shirly Temple. The short story is a tragedy with some dark humor mixed in. And there certainly isn't any singing like Guys and Dolls.
The stories have a pretty unique style. All are written in first person and narrated by an unnamed protagonist. They feel like stories a guy from the 1930s would tell you during a casual dinner. Anecdotes and the like. The slang is awesome, the names of the characters are brillant.
Definitely worth picking up.
For example, Little Miss Marker was a cute film with Shirly Temple. The short story is a tragedy with some dark humor mixed in. And there certainly isn't any singing like Guys and Dolls.
The stories have a pretty unique style. All are written in first person and narrated by an unnamed protagonist. They feel like stories a guy from the 1930s would tell you during a casual dinner. Anecdotes and the like. The slang is awesome, the names of the characters are brillant.
Definitely worth picking up.
March 2, 2009
My copy of this book is the one that belonged to my grandfather, who died in the late 40s. Runyon is an extremely undervalued writer, IMHO, one of the New Yorker writers who helped sell the magazine but isn't revered the way the other New Yorker writers are. Is it because his characters are obviously lower class? Not taxi riding tennis players like Holden Caulfield? Or is it that lots of this stuff went to Broadway and the movies (Lemon Drop Kid, Apple Annie, Little Miss Marker, Guys and Dolls.)
But these stories are still darn funny as well as touching. When I am sad, I read them again.
But these stories are still darn funny as well as touching. When I am sad, I read them again.
June 11, 2015
I ordered this book when i finished watching the movie 'guys and dolls' with marlon brando and frank sinatra. I loved the world created and wanted to read more about it.
To my surprise i quite enjoyed it. I was a bit hesitant to pick it up first but i read through it very quickly. There are parts that are very offensive and not all all pc. Especially the story of the bloodhounds of broadway. God that one made me cringe all the way through.
This book is mainly for people who want to read short stories set long ago who can overlook a little offensive use of violence and language.
Hint: i loved the use of the word 'indeed' it was very amusing to me. And also the nicknames!
To my surprise i quite enjoyed it. I was a bit hesitant to pick it up first but i read through it very quickly. There are parts that are very offensive and not all all pc. Especially the story of the bloodhounds of broadway. God that one made me cringe all the way through.
This book is mainly for people who want to read short stories set long ago who can overlook a little offensive use of violence and language.
Hint: i loved the use of the word 'indeed' it was very amusing to me. And also the nicknames!
October 16, 2007
A typical story in this collection is framed by an encounter of the nameless narrator with someone in Mindy's deli. The plot twist is rarely much of a surprise. But oh, the juice is in the telling, with obscure bits of slang (some of which Runyon must have invented himself) and paragraph-long litotes-laden sentences that double back on themselves to comic effect. Runyon manages to tell a tale in nested flashbacks using nothing but the present tense. The stories are both more violent and funnier than the material in the stage musical, and sometimes much darker.
March 7, 2008
Guys and Dolls is my all-time-favorite musical, and I love the collection of short stories on which it is based. Reading these stories is a helluva good time. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to go out and buy a checkered suit ...
Now if you'll excuse me, my school is performing G & D as the spring musical in about 15 minutes, so I gotta head to the auditorium to watch my very talented students in the roles of Sarah Brown, Sky Masterson, Nathan Detroit, Nicely-Nicely ... whatever his name is. Good times!
Now if you'll excuse me, my school is performing G & D as the spring musical in about 15 minutes, so I gotta head to the auditorium to watch my very talented students in the roles of Sarah Brown, Sky Masterson, Nathan Detroit, Nicely-Nicely ... whatever his name is. Good times!
March 22, 2010
I was predisposed to like this, being a big fan of the musical based on them. And these short stories did not disappoint (excluding the fact that I couldn't find a mention of Miss Adelaide anywhere! What's up with that?) I liked the turns of phrase and "wise guy" stylings that his first-person narrator uses (tho i spread out reading this collection over a few weeks -- perhaps reading them all at once it would have gotten old). I like the humor, I like the mini-mysteries that get set up, I like it all.
March 21, 2012
Odd that as famous a name should be so hard to find here. I don't know if the term 'Runyonesque' has disappeared from the language, but if so, it's a shame. No-one ever summed-up the place and the period as perfectly...and his stories are as delightful now as they were back then.
The key, of course, is his use of language and idiom, and by the time you've finished this, you'll be talking like Nicely-nicely Johnson! His style is like a gentle Philip Marlowe, and a grittier Bertie Wooster. Not much help? I guess not. Read this, then, and do a better review.
The key, of course, is his use of language and idiom, and by the time you've finished this, you'll be talking like Nicely-nicely Johnson! His style is like a gentle Philip Marlowe, and a grittier Bertie Wooster. Not much help? I guess not. Read this, then, and do a better review.
September 8, 2009
its tempting to read story after story but they're too alike to do so without a break inbetween. the plotlines are no big deal but his effective economy with words is stunning and makes me want to never write another sentence for the rest of my life. i laugh aloud every story.
the tough-guy jargon of the narrators is wonderful. and catching. lately i've been calling all my female friends "dolls"...
the tough-guy jargon of the narrators is wonderful. and catching. lately i've been calling all my female friends "dolls"...
Want to read
June 20, 2012I started reading the first tale, and the style stuck out like a purple thumb: Runyon seems obsessed with run-on sentences, in the manner of a caffeine addict who loathes periods -- or even the ellipsis -- for fear that any pause in his speech will allow someone else to get a word in edgewise or endo. It seems to be an accurate mimicking of an actual speech pattern, but it doesn't induce me to read on.
August 13, 2014
I have never really liked the musical Guys and Dolls, but these short stories are wonderful. Short stories are already my favorite form, as they get to the point quickly and have tight construction. These stories are all great, every one with a twist at the end. I found myself wanting to read them aloud to somebody just for the joy of the language. Now I have to watch the musical again and see if I get more out of it.
January 14, 2008
This was actually a re-read of the book, which I read when I was much younger. Only the first story has anything to do with the musical whatsoever; that said, the musical retained much of the feel of the stories, which were enjoyable, entertaining, and occasionally very touching. Read in a "Brooklyn accent."
November 5, 2008
"the lemon drop kid" is a fast-paced story of romance and adventure on long island in the roaring 20's. this is the only one i read from the anothology (so far), but it was a lot of fun, and well done. a little corny at times, but it worked. i took it in as the audio dramatized version available from audible.com.
April 13, 2013
Seen the film? Well the stories are better. The characters leap out at you, take your money and leave you for dead. The lilt and language of this cityscape conjures up a world normally obscured by melodrama or prejudice. The poetry is as much a precursor of Dylan's storytelling as anything by Hank Williams.
November 24, 2013
If you like the happy-go-lucky musical & movie Guys & Dolls and are expecting the same here, you might be surprised by the dark edge of many of the stories. They are, after all, about criminals.
Overall, Runyon is very funny and great at ending his stories with a final twist or jab you (usually) don't see coming. Good bedtime reading.
Overall, Runyon is very funny and great at ending his stories with a final twist or jab you (usually) don't see coming. Good bedtime reading.
February 4, 2014
This collection of short stories brings a smile to my face, just because you have seen the film don't think you know what the book is about. Five stars may seem a lot but by the end of every story my face was lit up because they are just charming.
I need to read Runyon's other short story collections.
I need to read Runyon's other short story collections.
Want to read
January 4, 2009I've loved the movie "Guys and Dolls" (based on a story from this book) for years, and I'm doing a production of it @ school right now. I don't think there's any better way to get to know Sarah (my character) than to read the original.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews