Into the Twilight, Endlessly Grousing by Patrick F. McManusMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
“Into the Twilight Endlessly Grousing” is one of the latest in a series of books containing magazine articles written by Patrick McManus. I’ve read most of his books, and greatly enjoyed them all. This one was one of my least favorites, though. It felt as if the editors had cherry-picked his best for the earlier books, and this one was not as up to snuff. Also, many of the articles were obviously newer, in that they mentioned bits of previous articles. One example is “The Stupidity Alarm”, where McManus mentions a number of predicaments in earlier articles, but felt like a column writer stretching for content. Some articles also felt quite a bit longer than I’ve seen in his earlier books. And some of the nostalgia he dredges up is not so much humorous as maudlin, generally the ones about aging. He does have the regular crew here for a few stories, such as Bike Ride. McManus has wonderful humorous descriptions that feel like Twain at times. Good collection.
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