The Bacon Fancier - Alan Isler

The Prince of West End Avenue - Alan Isler

Please, someone ask me what my favourite kind of literature is! Ah, good, you really want to know? I’ll tell you: it’s the one Alan Isler produces. What kind of literature does he produce? Let me answer with a little story. I’ve got a colleague, also a teacher of English, who likes telling me silly, absurd, weird jokes, he always begins with the words, "You’ll like this one." And do you know what? He’s always right. That has led me to the assumption that we’ve also got the same sense of humour literature-wise and has made me give him Alan Isler’s book ‘Clerical Errors’ to read. I was expecting him ...

Clerical Errors - Alan Isler

far, it can be one YOU find in all your highstreet shops at the moment or someone rather obscure the German bookshop people have chosen randomly. Alan Isler is such a one; I had never heard of him before. The cover of the book isn’t attractive, the reason why I've chosen Clerical Errors are the words ‘sumptuous’, ‘rambunctious’ and ‘lugubrious’ used in the blurbs. I can’t say that I know exactly what they mean (too lazy to look them up), but they appealed to me at once! On the whole I’d say that blurbs are silly and not helpful at all, sometimes outright misleading, but in the case of this book I’d ...

Clerical Errors - Alan Isler

Forget kindly, selfless Father Flanagan - his antithesis is Father Edmond Music, a priest gone far astray. He finds joy in celebrating the pleasures of the flesh with his housekeeper, Maude, is involved in the disappearance of a thought-to-be Shakespeare manuscript, was born a Jew, and worst of all, he's an unabashed atheist. Let's say up front that some will be offended by what they may consider blasphemy; it's pure Isler who won the 1994 National Jewish Book Award for "The Prince Of West End Avenue." He's satirical, laugh out loud funny, exquisitely literate, and touching. He's also unwilling to be reined in by "popular constraints." ...