Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town in Never too Late to Read Classics

Aug 21, 2018 Manybooks rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, humour, satire, book-reviews

With regard to Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock's 1912 Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, I have always (and from square one so to speak) been of the distinct and unfortunate impression that for many of us who have had to meticulously and with enforced thoroughness peruse Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town for either school or university, and been forced to, been actually by our teachers and instructors often mandated to dissect Leacock's writing, his choice of words, his style of humour with With regard to Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock's 1912 Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, I have always (and from square one so to speak) been of the distinct and unfortunate impression that for many of us who have had to meticulously and with enforced thoroughness peruse Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town for either school or university, and been forced to, been actually by our teachers and instructors often mandated to dissect Leacock's writing, his choice of words, his style of humour with the proverbial fine-toothed comb of critical analysis and in-depth interpretation, the episodic, gently satirical nuggets of small town Ontario (of small town global) life have sadly also thus tended to run the risk of losing much of their inherent and potential charm in a sea of tedium, resentment and disillusionment.

However and the above criticism having been said, and with me definitely standing by this assessment one hundred percent, I am actually and personally also happy to say, that the above mentioned school/university created and based issues have not ever really been been the case with and for me. For when we read Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town in the spring of 1982 for grade nine English, our teacher actually categorically refused to engage in any and all potential overly deep analysis, focussing our teenaged attention instead on the gentle (and general) humour of Stephen Leacock's words, on his delightful descriptions and on how universal and timeless Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town truly is (but I have indeed and frustratingly equally heard more than enough horror stories from friends and acquaintances whose attitudes and considerations towards Stephen Leacock as an author of merit and renown were in many ways permanently ruined and tarnished by basically having to for weeks and months on end analyse in particular Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town with deep literary interpretation methods, sometimes even being made to artificially force Leacock into a Marxist, a feminist or a deconstructionist mould, when at its most positive and its most successful, an analysis of Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town should really focus for the most part on the story's universality, on how Stephen Leacock's humour works and how his vignettes and episodic anecdotes do really manage to more often than not surpass both time and place and in such a sweetly entertaining, gentle and delightfully caressing manner at that).

But I do leave the in my opinion most necessary caveat that if you are in fact and indeed looking for heavy-duty, biting social criticism and satire, then Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town will or at least likely would (might) not be either an acceptable, an enjoyable, relatable reading experience or even the right type of literary genre for you. Because while Stephen Leacock's humour, irony and wit are definitely satirical in nature and his criticisms of small town Ontario (small town global) archetypes with their at times rather comical characteristics and stereotypical shortcomings, behavioural patterns are ever present and consistently constant, as well as at times even rather obviously if not even occasionally a bit stridently depicted, this ALWAYS does very much occur in an understanding, affectionate fashion (which although at times perhaps a trifle patronising in scope and feel is also imbued with the milk of human kindness and the realisation by the author/narrator that we ALL have such foibles, that we ALL are often the mirror images of the residents of Mariposa). However, if you do tend to enjoy light, fluffy and not too in-depth and strenuous satire (which while definitely critical is also always unfailingly understanding, sweetly loving and never all too much over the top and exaggerated), Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (and Stephen Leacock's writing in general) might very well be right up your proverbial alley so to speak, provided you do (in my opinion) take both Leacock and his work for what they represent, for a pleasurable, but never too heavy-duty and philosophical reading diversion, for a fun way to spend some quality reading time, with gentle humour, gentle satire sans much if any moralising and biting or philosophising nastiness. ...more

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Jun 23, 2024 Vinaya Wagh rated it really liked it

Shelves: humor, classics, project-gutenberg

These short stories about a county called Mariposa were quite funny. I enjoyed reading these. Hopefully the other books of Stephen Leacock as are good. Looking forward to read those too.

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