Scott Rice, ed., It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: The Best of the Bulwer-Lytton Contest (Penguin, 1984)
[originally posted 14Jun2001]
It seems like a can’t-miss idea, right? Publish the thousand or so best of the myriad entries the Bulwer-Lytton contest got in 1984. And, really, there’s a lot of funny stuff here. But two hundred pages’ worth does get old. Definitely a bathroom-read kind of book. It does divulge such brilliant bits as “a crowded elevator smells different to a midget,” though, so it’s worth your time. ** ½