content: For those who enjoy dark, cynical humor - I'm talking about painfully, exquisitely brutal wit, the kind where innocent bystanders can get hit by the shrapnel, this is probably the best book you've never heard of. His use of English as both an artistic medium and a weapon is almost unrivaled, though British greats John Cleese and Douglas Adams often evoke some of his elegance and economy of wording. His writing style often may seem dated to modern readers, and sometimes the references completely pass us by, but the majority of the book is both timeless and of the choicest quality."Magpie - a bird whose thievish disposition suggested to someone that it might be taught to talk."