One does not have to skitter far before one comes upon some vignette which gives the full shape and flavour of the book: the youthful dreamer of dreams biting a sick bat or kissing a dead horse, the slender stripling going into man’s estate with the high hope and fond desire of one day eating a live but roasted turkey, the sighing lover covering himself with goat dung and aspic that he might give off the true and noble odour of the ram. The humour is often wry and bittersweet, such as “The Secret Life of James Thurber”, in which the author somewhat presents his own memoirs in contrast to those of the larger-than-life and frankly unbelievable recollections of Salvador Dali – which, despite their patent untruths, seem to have outsold the works of Thurber, a fact that obviously bothered the latter!
It makes a better recitation (unless, as some friends of mine have said, one has heard it five or six times) than it does a piece of writing, for it is almost necessary to throw furniture around, shake doors and bark like a dog, to lend the proper atmosphere and versimilitude to what is admittedly a somewhat incredible tale. I suppose the high-water mark of my youth in Columbus, Ohio, was the night the bed fell on my father.
Many of the most humorous are (semi?) autobiographical tales of family life, the best of which I would say is “The Night the Bed Fell”, a tale of family chaos which had me laughing out loud. The pieces collected here are remarkably varied, reflecting his wide range, and there are some wonderfully funny stories. His works were filmed and his plays appeared on Broadway. Thurber was something of a polymath despite having problems with his sight for much of his life, he produced cartoons, journalism, short stories, plays and was known as a wit. However, I actually encountered something much more varied, quite dark in places and very pithy. I say ‘unexpected’ for a good reason Thurber is an author new to me and I somehow expected to be reading lightweight, witty pieces.
Recently reissued in a lovely Penguin Modern Classics edition, it’s the ideal way to get acquainted with this unexpected author. Thurber has a reputation as a humourist and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” brings together a selection of his pieces from a previous collection called “The Thurber Carnival”. The title story of this collection of short pieces by James Thurber is probably his best-known work, thanks to the popular film adaptation starring Danny Kaye.
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