Not Exactly What I Had In Mind

by Roy Blount Jr.

A funny and incisive collection of essays on oddities of life in the 1980s, from one of America’s most cherished humoristsFirst published in 1985, Not Exactly What I Had In Mind is Roy Blount Jr.’s smart and witty examination of the era’s most glaring absurdities—from the ever-growing deficit under then-president Reagan to the Game Theory–like levels of strategy required to pack for a vacation. In “Testimonial, Head-on,” Blount offers a loving ode to the virtues of full-bodied beer. In “Who You Gonna Call?” he enumerates the indefatigable charms of Bill Murray. And in “What You Personally Can Do about the Federal Deficit,” he proposes a brilliantly simple and populist way to reduce government debt—and probably make your neighborhood post office very happy in the process.Powered by Roy Blount’s irresistible sense of humor, Not Exactly What I Had in Mind revels in Reagan-era topics, but with a humor that is truly timeless.

Genres: Humor

175 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Roy Blount Jr. is the author of twenty-three books. The first, About Three Bricks Shy of a Load, was expanded into About Three Bricks Shy . . . and the Load Filled Up. It is often called one of the best sports books of all time. His subsequent works have taken on a range of subjects, from Duck Soup, to Robert E. Lee, to what cats are thinking, to how to savor New Orleans, to what it’s like being married to the first woman president of the United States.

Blount is a panelist on NPR’s Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me!, an ex-president of the Authors Guild, a usage consultant for the American Heritage Dictionary, a New York Public Library Literary Lion, and a member of both the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the band the Rock Bottom Remainders.

In 2009, Blount received the University of North Carolina’s Thomas Wolfe Prize. The university cited “his voracious appetite for the way words sound and for what they really mean.” Time places Blount “in the tradition of the great curmudgeons like H. L. Mencken and W. C. Fields.” Norman Mailer has said, “Page for page, Roy Blount is as funny as anyone I’ve read in a long time.” Garrison Keillor told the Paris Review, “Blount is the best. He can be literate, uncouth, and soulful all in one sentence.”

Blount’s essays, articles, stories, and verses have appeared in over one hundred and fifty publications, including the New Yorker, the New York Times, Esquire, the Atlantic, Sports Illustrated, the Oxford American, and Garden & Gun. He comes from Decatur, Georgia, and lives in western Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Erica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written in a quaint time when the federal deficit was only $200 billion, this collection of short stories is good for a chuckle at some unintentional prophecies (What if Nixon had stuck with this program and expanded it to the point where he was tape recording everybody in the nation except himself? What if our government had placed a tape recorder in every American home?), and as a Bill Murray fan I enjoyed the "Who You Gonna Call?" story, but otherwise I just can't relate to the musings of a middle-aged LA liberal from 30 years ago.

[KennyO · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, is anyone going to notice that the book description is for an entirely other book?

Anyway, I’ve enjoyed Blount’s work for a long time. This one is a bit too stuck in its time, losing something for current readers. I’ll demur on recommending it though I’ll happily pass along most of Blount’s other work as being well worth your time.

[Kevin Kosar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Utterly cornball drivel. I made it less than halfway through this book and I simply could not read any more. It just wasn't funny.