Behold My Shorts - The Best of Robert Byrne

Wide-ranging and full of surprises, Behold My Shorts displays a sense of humor that has been honed over a 40-year writing career. Here are ninety-three of Robert Byrne's most hilarious short works: newspaper columns, magazine pieces, and excerpts from his novels and collections of one-liners. The comic sketches are divided into seven sections: The Early Years, The Writing Life, Wild Imaginings, Random Shots, People I've Met and Can't Forget, Billiards, and God Stuff. In A Chat With the Author, Byrne gradually suspects that his interviewer is his alter ego and that he has been foolishly talking to himself. Fan favorites include an essay written from the point of view of a newborn baby, an account of how he might have killed a hard-boiled New York book editor, his memorable encounter with a Dutch billionaire in Monte Carlo, an address he'd like to give to a graduating class, an obituary of a "dyspeptic geezer" who lost a cowardly battle against cancer, and what might have happened if Lazarus had been raised from the dead despite a do-not-resuscitate order.