Not really fair to review this now - I’m a bit hazy on it. Because it’s an anthology of humorous/whimsical articles and a few daydream stories, I wisely only read it in small doses over a while - the pieces suffer if you read too many in a row, and weren’t written for this. Still it means I’m not as up on exactly why it got an A-.
Several pieces are definitely not worthy of an A, though few would drop below a B. I recall really relishing Who do you think you are?, a reflection on dealing with the assumption of mediocrity. The Current Crisis in Remorse was a clever satire on the much (legitimately) pilloried denial of guilt in the courts. How to write a letter was on the money, and particularly the first of Three Marriages was quite touching and felt authentic.
He’s in the same category as P.J. O’Rourke, but less biting, and his humour is not so much the clever one-liner as a slow characterisation. He rides on the edge of sentimentality but somehow rarely crosses it, managing warmth and definitive whimsicality.