BOOKS: Growing Up

Baker signs his autograph__via Stowe Vintage

Ever find a gem? I did. Ever hear of Russell Baker? You should have. Baker is a gem; a gem of a writer, a funny witty man, a master of the well written essay. Baker is kind of a gift, give it to yourself. If you like humor he’s your man__not comedy that’s something different, but humor. Humor is something of a higher order. Humor is P.J. O'Rourke, H.L. Mencken, James Thurber, or P.G. Wodehouse. There is a certain subtle cleverness about humor not found in comedy. Comedy is usually devoid of the subtle. A lot of current humor relies on shock. Humorists will shock you, but in a clever way that strikes a chord with the human condition. In addition to Baker’s many essays and satirical newspaper columns, Baker, wrote, “Growing Up,”(1982) a touching coming of age autobiography of his life in rural Virginia and suburban New Jersey during the Depression years and WWII. The New York Times described “Growing Up” as, “magical.” And that it is. Baker takes material that is so sad and turns it into something so warm and “subtly” humorous that he manages to create a whole new form of “biographical art.” One moment you will laugh and then a few paragraphs down a lump will be in your throat. The most shocking thing about “Growing Up,” is that it bears a suspicious resemblance to life. And it is this aspect that resonates most with the reader. In the book Russell’s mother, Lucy Elizabeth, tells the young boy, after he brings home a 7^th grade essay, "Buddy", "maybe you could be a writer.” Best advise ever from a Mom, I say. Ultimately, “Growing Up” is a tribute to Baker’s mother, always there throughout the book helping him, urging him on. Tragically in the end, overcome with senility, she can’t even remember her own son. Read this book if you haven’t, even you have read it again as Mother’s Day approaches.

Russell Baker Quotations__A Sampler:

“Americans like fat books and thin women.”

“In America, it is sport that is the opiate of the masses.”

“Inanimate objects can be classified scientifically into three major categories; those that don't work, those that break down and those that get lost.”

“Is fuel efficiency really what we need most desperately? I say that what we really need is a car that can be shot when it breaks down.”

“The goal of all inanimate objects is to resist man and ultimately defeat him.”

“The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn't require any.”