Genre: Nonfiction—Commentary & Humor
Completed: 30 April 2013
Summary & Review:
Commentator James Lileks offers pithy commentary on a collection of print advertisements spanning the late 1800s through the 1950s. Lileks explores the amazing cure-alls, magic rings, love potions, and other quackery offered to credulous patrons with his trademark humor and wit.
First of all, I really like the writing style of Lileks. He has a regular column in National Review that is usually one of my favorite things to read in the magazine. He is very cleaver with his turns of phrase and that makes for entertaining reading. Plus, these ads were hilarious. I would be interested in learning how many of these businesses, services, and products offered in these advertisements were successful because they all so clearly screamed fraud. Then again, a lot of them were nearly identical in style, phrasing, and promises to many of the ads you see on web sites today. For example, a lot of the ads would use the words “weird” or “strange,” and I seem to see that in tons of internet ads, things like “Learn this one weird trick for burning fat fast!” The more things change…
Rating: 5.5
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