Author:  Fred Flaxman
ISBN:  978-1-891513-01-5
Publisher:  Story Book Publishers

Click Here To Purchase Sixty Slices of Life ... on Wry: The Private Life of a Public Broadcaster

Sixty Slices of Life…on Wry: The Private Life of a Public Broadcaster

BEWARE, laughter ahead!  Flaxman has a wonderful way of talking of ordinary events that take on a funny life of their own.  Each chapter is delightful and his conversational style of writing is comfortable and easy to read. The writing is succinct but you never feel like you have missed any details of the story.  Reading this book felt like I was having coffee and conversation with a reunited friend.

The author was raised in the New Jersey suburbs of New York City. Flaxman holds a B.A. with honors in journalism from the University of Michigan, an M.A. in political science from Stanford University, and a certificate in French studies from the Sorbonne, University of Paris.  Defying modern precedent, he married his wife, Annick Story in 1963.

The book is written chronologically which only aids the reader in understanding how Flaxman can find humor everywhere.   The front and back cover let the reader know what to expect right away.  The front being a collection of all things that have shaped his life; and the back with the picture of him as a child with the caption, “the most recent good picture of the author” prepares the reader for the laughter that follows.

The reader feels his pain when his mother gives away Buster and Fred becomes depressed.  You can picture the scene when he “records” the happenings at the dinner table and it isn’t quite the production he thought it would be.  The reader can empathize when he had to swim to complete school. You can also identify with him on what he does (convincing parents to fund the trip to France wasn’t easy) to be with the women he loves.  We again feel the emotion rise and a smile curl on our face when he locks the cabinet to the television so the kids will do something else.  The reader could also get smug satisfaction when reading the chapter of Fred’s distaste (for practical reasons) of his tie and jacket attire. 

From start to finish, this book was a splendid read.  It will be a great addition to your humorous book collection. Anyone with a sliver of humor in their being will enjoy this book.  The book was used in one of my reading groups that “had to be taken outside” because we were laughing too much in the library.  That was indeed almost as funny as the book; the book breeds laughter!

Being able to laugh at yourself and looking back on your life in a humorous way is a great gift.  Fred Flaxman has that gift. 

 Click Here To Purchase Sixty Slices of Life ... on Wry: The Private Life of a Public Broadcaster