''Side Effects'' is an anthology of 17 comical short essays written by
Woody Allen
Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolade ...
between 1975 and 1980, all but one of which were previously published in, variously, ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...
'', ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'', and ''
The Kenyon Review
''The Kenyon Review'' is a literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, home of Kenyon College. ''The Review'' was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959. ''T ...
''. It includes Allen's 1978
O. Henry Award-winning story "The Kugelmass Episode".
Contents
# Remembering Needleman
# The Condemned
# By Destiny Denied
# The UFO Menace
# My Apology
# The Kugelmass Episode
# My Speech to the Graduates
# The Diet
# The Lunatic's Tale
# Reminiscences: Places and People
# Nefarious Times We Live In
# A Giant Step for Mankind
# The Shallowest Man
# The Query
# Fabrizio's: Criticism and Response
# Retribution
# Confessions of a Burglar
Some of the tales in detail
*"Remembering Needleman" is a one-liner- and non-sequitur-filled obituary for Professor Sandor Needleman.
*"By Destiny Denied" presents the reader with notes for a fictional "eight-hundred-page novel—the big book they're all waiting for."
*"My Apology" is Allen's tale of a recurring fantasy/dream of his where he imagines himself in the sandals of
Socrates
Socrates (; ; – 399 BC) was a Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and as among the first moral philosophers of the Ethics, ethical tradition ...
during the philosopher's final days in prison.
*"The Kugelmass Episode" is about a
CCNY professor, Sidney Kugelmass, who, thanks to the powers of an obscure magician, is projected into ''
Madame Bovary
''Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners'' (; ), commonly known as simply ''Madame Bovary'', is the début novel by France, French writer Gustave Flaubert, originally published in 1856 and 1857. The eponymous character, Emma Bovary, lives beyond he ...
'' to carry on an affair beyond the scrutiny of his overbearing wife.
*"My Speech to the Graduates" is a parody of platitude-laden
commencement speech
In the United States, a commencement speech or commencement address is a speech given to graduating students, generally at a university, although the term is also used for secondary education institutions and in similar institutions around the ...
es.
*"Nefarious Times We Live In" concerns the events that lead its protagonist, Willard Pogrebin, to fire a
Luger at President
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...
. They involve at least five kinds of drugs and three cults.
Running jokes
Throughout the book, frequent references are made to composer
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...
. In addition, numerous gags are made with an implication that people bear an innate knowledge of
Dutch. Characters' love interests are compared to a grotesque,
golem
A golem ( ; ) is an animated Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is created entirely from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud. The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th-century ...
-like Aunt Rifka in two separate stories.
References
External links
Profile on Google BooksWoody Allen's bibliography
1980 short story collections
Comedy books
American short story collections
Short story collections by Woody Allen
Random House books
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