People either love or hate this book. While I like Vonnegut, Catch-22, etc, this book is unique. And entertaining. Kaufman's word choice is fantastic (yeah. he uses big words. Get over it and learn something) and he has great characters (a zany egyptologist who only wears dirty bathrobes, for example) and absurdly comical locales (a porn studio, old mansion, etc), and the circumstances that get the main character to Iraq are great. Tried to explain this book to a friend and came off sounding like a crazy person. The second half isn't as good but I was still more than willing to push through it and get to the end. Over all, I found this book entertaining, thought-provoking, and different.

(And better than his second book, Misadventure) ( )

http://www.bostonbibliophile.com/2009/09/review-bowl-of-cherries-by-millard.html ( )

This short novel is such fun and so depressing to read--it's a true satire and reminded me of "Catch 22" in its spoofs of the military but is about much more than those misadventures. Kaufman is--not surprisingly, given his roots in comics--a genius at coming up with iconic images for his young prodigy's misfortunes. The larger than life totems constructed of dung that represent other characters in the novel will in particular stay with you. Not a perfect novel, but pretty nearly a perfect satire--so 5 stars! ( )

This novel is purportedly the first by the 90 year old screenwriter and WWII veteran. How he made it through a career in Hollywood -- including creating the character Mr. Magoo -- without writing a book, especially a book about all his adventures, is unclear. Nevertheless he's put together a very, very young, light novel. The book is unique and important--as an extension of the frivolous and unexpected meanderings of a Michael Chabon or Thomas Pynchon admixed with the theatricality and cinematics one would find in a feature film.

The vocabulary is startling. Without feeling like he's inventorying a daily super-hard word calendar, he's pushing the reader to consult her dictionary. Turning bits like 'phonetic dandyism' and 'lobotomized Esperanto so piss-elegant they self-destruct on the tongue into parody". However, the book seemed to tawdry and liscivious, gratuitously so. This was a turn-off, and continued throughout.

The book is set in a mix of locales, including Iraq - an interesting and in itself humorous and ironic choice in our contemporary Age. In all, perhaps not in a class of its own, it is certainly an original worth reading. ( )