Dispatches from the Tenth Circle: The Best of The Onion by Robert Siegel, Onion Staff, The Onion Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Dispatches from the Tenth Circle: The Best of The Onion
Book Review: Truth vs. Reality
Summary: 5 Stars
There's truth, and then there's reality. What The Onion prints is never reality, but sometimes it's truer than the front page of the New York Times.I'm known in my circles as a sort of "Mikey" of humor, someone beyond curmudgeon. People tell jokes, and laugh, and say "That's really funny, but let's see if Rivkah laughs."
Well, The Onion makes me laugh. Regularly, and outloud. It's beyond satire; I don't think there's a word for the humor in The Onion. There are probably people out there who don't find The Onion funny, but I don't want to know them. With article titles such as "Species of Blue-Green Algae Announces IPO," "Fun Toy Banned Because of Three Stupid Dead Kids," or "Christ Announces Hiring of Associate Christ" you just know it has to be hilarious, and absurd and yet so true. How these writers can pen this stuff day after day without going into seizures, I don't know.
I do know that reading The Onion keeps world events in perspective, a service I badly need. Thank goodness it will always be there, because we continue to provide the writers with so much fodder.
Yes, you may be able to read The Onion on-line, or if you are very lucky, pick up the actual paper, but still, buy this book. It's so much more portable than your PC. You can take it on appointments, to read while you're waiting, read it over coffee at the corner bakery, or snuggle up in bed with it. You won't be sorry.
Book Review: Yes, it IS worth it - even though it is free on the web
Summary: 5 Stars
You may ask yourself whether it is worth spending money on this book when the content is available on their website for free. The answer is yes - absolutely! Somehow, on paper these hilarious dispatches are even better than on your computer screen. Trust me.
You will be reading it again, and again, and again; sharing it with friends and enjoying every bit of the exquisite dark humour will be a pleasure that will last and last.
Book Review: You Can't Beat The Onion for Dark Humor
Summary: 5 Stars
While just about every single word in this volume is reprinted from the weekly editions on The Onion's website, you still gotta love this book which you can take anywhere, and make people wonder while you're laughing so hard. Most people think The Onion is merely a political satire and humor magazine, but the way they make fun of current events is surprisingly deep and the dark, observational humor is often ingenious and even disturbing. Headlines of note in this book are "ACLU Defends Nazis' Right to Burn Down ACLU Headquarters" in which The Onion finds the contradications in so-called political correctness (lest you think The Onion is all bleeding-heart leftists); "Columbine Jocks Safely Resume Bullying" in which The Onion can see the uncomfortable truth that nobody else wants to admit to; and "Hershey's Ordered to Pay Obese Americans $135 Billion" where we can see the irony and hypocrisy in lawsuits that people use to blame others for their problems.
To alleviate the heaviness, many of the articles are just plain slapstick humor, but always with an intelligent edge, like "Dolphins Evolve Opposable Thumbs", or "Casual One-Nighter Gives Strom Thurmond Change of Heart on Homosexuality Issue."
Whether the stories are just lightweight social satire, or downright disturbing and deeply insightful, they're mostly hysterical in the true Onion tradition. Even the pieces by the "guest columnists" can be deeper than expected. But in light of recent events, watch out for the stories "Terrorist Annoyed by Delayed Flight" and "Arabs, Israelis Sign 'Screw Piece' Accord". Some of this humor isn't for the easily disturbed or offended, that's for sure.
Book Review: You have to love the Onion
Summary: 4 Stars
It's not quite as good as their first book, "Our Dumb Century," but "Dispatches" is still hilarious. Just the headline "Chinese Woman Gives Birth to Septuplets, Has One Week to Choose" is good enough reason to buy this one.While I love writers like David Sedaris or P.J. O'Rourke, even more amazing to me are books like "Dispatches" and "Our Dumb Century," or SatireWire's "Economy of Errors." Sedaris and O'Rourke make you laugh on every page, but these guys make you laugh with almost every paragraph. Occasionally some pieces in Dispatches fall a little flat, like one about the '85 Chicago Bears reuniting to make another album. But the first-person editorials make up for any shortfalls: "I Just Love Corporations!" or "In Retrospect, I Guess We Might Have Resorted to Cannibalism A Bit Early."