Topper Takes a Trip by Thorne Smith Eight out of 10

 Topper Takes a Trip by Thorne Smith

Eight out of 10


We can find Topper Takes a Trip on the 1,000 Books Everyone Must Read list https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction though to try perhaps the same passé jocularity that pervades the book it would be difficult to see why, especially if one has not managed to finish the damn book, except by just turning the pages to see The END written all over and place it on the shelf…well, given its electronic format, it was not really physically moved anywhere.

The problem with comedy books might be that if the reader does not find them particularly funny, does not go for the kind of humor that is peddled by the writer, perhaps – maybe more likely in this instance – the man or woman taking up the narrative does not have the sense of humor that is so vital for the wellbeing of humans in that it is one of the preconditions of happiness, and is even listed as one of the components of Transcendence as a Signature or Character Strength https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/account/register - then there is little or nothing left to do with a story that is supposed to amuse and it does not.
If we use The Trip that Topper Takes to the French Riviera, there is not much in it, unless of course you have a taste for the type of humor that has been so much appreciated in 1926 and thereafter, when Thorne Smith had enjoyed success with readers and critics, albeit he seems to have sunk into a sort of obscurity, given that this particular book, although allegedly one of those We Must Read, together with Everyone else, does not even have a Wikipedia page and if you search for it, you only find among the first Google results links to Amazon (of course, it is among the billions of things they have in store and to other virtual shops that want to sell you the item.

Cosmo Topper is the main character in this novel that is part of a series and he has a troubled, if supposedly comical, relationship with his spouse, jealous as she is and observant of the interest that the husband has in various other women, starting with the German model – it is assumed that she is, but is she…the under signed does not know and frankly does not really care – and continuing with other apparitions on and near the beach in the South of France.
The German woman walks on the sand and she keeps taking off more of her clothing, up to the point where she might get naked and this is an aspect that does not in itself make for interesting reading, unless of course we appreciate the ‘humorous’ manner in which Thorne Smith describes it or not, according to your judgment of this and other episodes in the opus.

There is also the ridiculous, if entertaining (?) attitude that Topper takes to his departure from home and the habits he has, since he disagrees with French ways, from the breakfast to other particulars, he makes every effort to get the meals he enjoys at home, with omelet and bacon (if this is not a wrong recollection) and that again could be construed as hilarious by those who include this with gems, Magnum opera like Lucky Jim by divine Kingsley Amis http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/05/lucky-jim-by-kingsley-amis.html

For this reader though, the idea of putting aside one of the most famous and best cuisines in the world and take the American style of cooking instead does not look like the most amusing gesture, but the sort of thing that those going to a motorcycle rally for 250,000 people, in the middle of a pandemic, with record numbers of newly infected men and women would do.
As for the ghosts that haunt Cosmo Topper – now that is a rare reason to appreciate the hero, for Cosmo sounds great and it was also used for Cosmo Kramer – they seem to belong to the same category of bizarre, outré, outlandish personages and not ones that would provoke laughter, say as in another glorious masterpiece, A Good Man in Africa by the master of the genre, William Boyd http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/09/a-good-man-in-africa-by-william-boyd-10.html

You do not have to take my word for it, indeed, it would be better to consult another source and this is just a probably very wrong negative opinion, based on little engagement with a book that, once I had discovered I do not really enjoy the first maybe forty pages or less, I decided I just turn the rest quickly, hoping for some gems and then did not offer it a proper treatment, the attention it probably deserves and which would have brought some scenes of absolute exhilaration and hilarity in the most extreme forms.

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