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The Magic Christian

di Terry Southern

Altri autori: Vedi la sezione altri autori.

UtentiRecensioniPopolaritàMedia votiCitazioni
439756,457 (3.5)16
The New York Times-bestselling author's cult classic skewers America's obsession with money, fame, guns, and sex--"A satirical gem" (John Berendt).   Guy Grand, an eccentric billionaire prankster, is rich enough to do whatever he likes. And what he likes is to carefully execute projects where he can cauterize by ridicule what the rest of the world ignores: complacency, greed, corruption, and idiocy. Determined to "make it hot for people," Grand spends his billions staging a series of hilarious, sometimes bewildering stunts, lampooning along the way the American holy cows of money, status, power, beauty, media, and stardom. Concocting deliciously perverse mayhem, he throws a million one-hundred-dollar bills into an enormous vat of steaming offal, proving just what people will do for money, and he promotes a new silky shampoo that turns hair to wire and a deodorant that becomes a time-released stench-bomb. He inserts subliminally suggestive and perverse images into well-loved classic films, takes a howitzer on safari, and brings a panther to a kennel club dog show. His most elaborate adventure is an ultra-exclusive cruise aboard the S.S. Magic Christian, where elite passengers are treated to a series of madcap indignities.   The Magic Christian is a hilarious and savagely satiric view of American commercialism, rich in Southern's deft handling of detail, dialogue, and delightful deviancy.   This ebook features an illustrated biography of Terry Southern including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's estate.… (altro)
Aggiunto di recente daGunnCenter, VinSalad, GDBrown, iluvvideo, sdpbooks, lauvee, SteveMcSteve, georgebexley, jmdunc54, GottemanTod
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» Vedi le 16 citazioni

Guy Grand es un millonario excéntrico (el último de los grandes derrochadores) decidido a crear desorden en el mundo y dispuesto a no escatimar gastos para conseguirlo. Tras una vida marcada por las bromas pesadas y los planes enloquecidos, su último objetivo consiste en probar su teoría acerca de que nadie puede resistirse al poder del dinero, y que, por conseguirlo, cualquiera haría lo que se le pidiera, por más degradante que fuese. En el universo de Guy Grand, todos tienen un precio, y él está dispuesto a pagarlo.
  Natt90 | Mar 7, 2023 |
Completely over the top satire and parody of wealth - especially American wealth.

Guy Grand has enough money to waste, in lavish, over the top, foolish ways.

The book was funny in part, but mostly crass and ugly - part of the satire, but so far over the top, it was like satire of satire. ( )
  sriddell | Aug 6, 2022 |
This prankish satire was probably a little subversive when it was written in 1959, but some of the sting has been lost, now that all of American public life (mass media, business, professional sports, politics) feels like bad parody. Southern’s best pieces are still brilliant, though. A newspaper dispenses with editorials, comics, and ads and prints only facts, resulting in riots between aggrieved ethnic, religious and socio-economic factions. The bit with quizzical, gawking crowds surrounding a stranger smashing crackers with a sledgehammer is a dead-on metaphor for American culture.

Foolproof Golden Ale
Ithaca Flower Power IPA
1 vota MusicalGlass | Jul 21, 2014 |
Man, what a waste. This book was neither funny nor entertaining. It was like a cruel and unfunny Wodehouse. I'll stick with Bertie and Jeeves. ( )
  dtn620 | Sep 22, 2013 |
Guy Grand--"Grand" Guy Grand--is a billionaire, and the dubious protagonist of The Magic Christian, Terry Southern's satire of American culture. Grand Guy is a master of the elaborate, all-out, over-the-top practical joke, a mean-spirited prankster who believes that everyone has his price and who is willing to go any length (and pay any amount of money) to find that price. He thinks of this as "making it hot for people."

Grand Guy's pranks can be ranked on a sliding scale. There is the relatively innocuous--say, offering thousands of dollars to a stranger on the street to eat Grand's parking ticket. There is the grotesque--building a giant vat on a busy Chicago street, filling it with manure and urine from the stockyards (heated, so as to literally "make it hot for people"), stirring in tens of thousands of dollars and posting a sign advertising free money, then sitting back to watch the fun. There are the behavioral--paying off actors in a live television drama to break away during a climactic scene, address the camera directly, then walk off stage, or paying off both parties in a boxing match--the Champ to take a fall in an excessively effeminate manner and his challenger to win in an effeminate manner as well. It's not always clear who or what Southern is sending up--boxing? the people who watch the sport? boxers? gays?--and the pranks are more likely to cause one to squirm uncomfortably than to laugh out loud.

But Grand Guy's most expensive, most elaborate, most unfathomable prank is that which gives title to the book. The Magic Christian is a giant cruise ship which Guy Grand has purchased, refitted as the ultimate in luxury, taken out on her maiden voyage, then orchestrated to...well, one doesn't want to be a spoiler. Suffice to say, it's a voyage that doesn't end well.

Although it's more bizarre than wonderful, more anxiety-producing than hilarious, still, Terry Southern gets the American psyche, both in 1959 when this book was published and possibly even more so now, in this age of Fear Factor and Survivor. The Magic Christian isn't as funny--and certainly not as delightful--as Candy, which Southern co-wrote with the poet Mason Hoffenberg. Still, it's worth a read. And, if you get the chance, check out the movie version, a truly bizarre experience. It stars Peter Sellers as Guy Grand, co-stars Ringo Starr as his adopted son Youngman Grand (a character created for the movie). The screenplay was co-written by Southern, and then re-written by Graham Chapman and John Cleese. ( )
1 vota BeckyJG | Jan 29, 2010 |
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» Aggiungi altri autori (1 potenziale)

Nome dell'autoreRuoloTipo di autoreOpera?Stato
Southern, Terryautore primariotutte le edizioniconfermato
Ballerini, EdoardoNarratoreautore secondarioalcune edizioniconfermato
Gil-Delgado, EnriqueTraduttoreautore secondarioalcune edizioniconfermato
Hofmann, BillCover Artistautore secondarioalcune edizioniconfermato
Saarikoski, TuulaTraduttoreautore secondarioalcune edizioniconfermato
Sloan, WilliamCover illustrationautore secondarioalcune edizioniconfermato
Tierney, JimImmagine di copertinaautore secondarioalcune edizioniconfermato

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When not tending New York holdings, Guy Grand was generally, as he expressed it, "on the go."
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The New York Times-bestselling author's cult classic skewers America's obsession with money, fame, guns, and sex--"A satirical gem" (John Berendt).   Guy Grand, an eccentric billionaire prankster, is rich enough to do whatever he likes. And what he likes is to carefully execute projects where he can cauterize by ridicule what the rest of the world ignores: complacency, greed, corruption, and idiocy. Determined to "make it hot for people," Grand spends his billions staging a series of hilarious, sometimes bewildering stunts, lampooning along the way the American holy cows of money, status, power, beauty, media, and stardom. Concocting deliciously perverse mayhem, he throws a million one-hundred-dollar bills into an enormous vat of steaming offal, proving just what people will do for money, and he promotes a new silky shampoo that turns hair to wire and a deodorant that becomes a time-released stench-bomb. He inserts subliminally suggestive and perverse images into well-loved classic films, takes a howitzer on safari, and brings a panther to a kennel club dog show. His most elaborate adventure is an ultra-exclusive cruise aboard the S.S. Magic Christian, where elite passengers are treated to a series of madcap indignities.   The Magic Christian is a hilarious and savagely satiric view of American commercialism, rich in Southern's deft handling of detail, dialogue, and delightful deviancy.   This ebook features an illustrated biography of Terry Southern including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's estate.

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