Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker

These poems are not ""lost"" in the way that we have come to expect from TV specials that celebrate never-seen episodes of, say, The Honeymooners. Rather, as Silverstein points out, these 122 poems appeared in popular magazines and newspapers of 1915-1938 yet have not previously been collected between hard covers. This does not bode well, nor does Silverstein, a journalist, attempt to build our hopes--his very lengthy introduction hits hard on Parker's alcoholism. But to engage the reader, he offers, via 113 footnotes, scores of ""Dottie's"" best witticisms. (The book's title is her response to a bartender's query: ""What are you having?""). He succinctly observes that Parker's problem was a lack of artistic vision: ""She needed ideas, not craft, and she failed."" Indeed, this collection of light verse is built basically on two blunt ideas, which fortunately are not without their entertainment value: romance bad (""The most wonderful thing/ Is how well I get on without you""); money good (""Immortality ask I not/ All I want is a lot of jack""). (Aug.)