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Title: Bowl of Cherries

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Millard Kaufman

Narrator: Bronson Pinchot

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 1 min

Language: English

Release date: 06-18-08

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 2 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

There, he falls for young Valerie Chatterton, who quickly leads Breslau away from his research and into, in order: the attic, a Colorado equestrian ranch, a porn studio beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, and a jail cell in southern Iraq, where we find him awaiting his own execution while the war rages on in the north.

Written by a 90-year-old debut novelist, ex-Marine, two-time Oscar nominee, and co-creator of Mr. Magoo, Bowl of Cherries rivals the liveliest comic novels for sheer gleeful inventiveness.

This is a book of astounding breadth and sharp consequence, containing all the joy, derangement, terror, and doubt of adolescence and modern times.

Critic Reviews:

"[A] bawdy, original coming-of-age tale...shot through with worldly wit and a keen sense of the humor [about] human foibles." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Much like a bowl of cherries ...

... not too sweet, and not too tart; but a delicious mouthful bursting with both. This novel reads as a fun, satirical frolic with plenty of unexpected twists. I found myself avidly enjoying each chapter like a ripe cherry on a late summer's eve. There is a plentitude of $5 words which can lead you off on fun tangents of exploration in your handy dictionary; or like I did, one can underline them and return like a squirrel to a nut for an autumn's eve of scholarly study. So it is that Kaufman indulges the reader with language that so very unfortunately is no longer enjoyed in these rat-race days of terse and abbreviated, instant-messaging intercourse. With such an eloquent use of vivid language, the lucid nonagenerian author dresses English in its Sunday best and parades it, as if to presage us, the younger readers, to rage, rage against the dying of the light and not allow our language to languish to the pathetic destitution of nothing more than mere pulp fiction and text messages. So, enjoy the show!

To have a little more fun and learn more about Kaufman (and even Mr. Magoo!), you can visit the NPR website and search for a bowl of cherries to find his Weekend Edition interview with Scott Simon.

Kaufman's Bowl of Cherries: A novel with spunk and bite

I've read this wonderful novel three times - first when it was published, again about half a year ago, and now this third time, and I've found that my enjoyment only increases with each reading. And sadly, it's with this latest reading that I've discovered Millard Kaufman passed away, on March 15, 2009, at 92 years of age. I was floored to read that he's survived by his wife...of 66 years! I mourn his passing, but still...that's one full life, so at least we can be assuaged by the fact that Kaufman left us a lot of great material. (Including a second novel, "Misadventure," which McSweeney's will publish in Fall of 2009. I've been unable to discover what this novel will be about, but you can be sure I'll be pre-ordering it.)

Reviews for this novel are split right down the middle here on Amazon, so I want to set the record straight: Bowl of Cherries is a novel for writers. This is a novel that shows what wonder still survives in the English language.