Mere Anarchy

Here, in his first collection since his three hilarious classics Getting Even, Without Feathers, and Side Effects, Woody Allen has managed to write a book that not only answers the most profound questions of human existence but is also the perfect size to place under any short table leg to prevent wobbling.

In hysterical flights of inspirational sanity we are introduced to a cast of characters only Allen could imagine: Jasper Nutmeat, Flanders Mealworm, and the independent film mogul E. Coli Biggs, just to name a few. Whether he is writing about art, sex, food, or crime, he is explosively funny. In “This Nib for Hire,” a Hollywood bigwig comes across an author’s book in a little country store and describes it in a way that aptly captures this magnificent volume: “Actually,” the producer says, “I’d never seen a book remaindered in the kindling section before.”

Praise for Mere Anarchy:

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

“The stories in Mere Anarchy deliver the same joys and foibles that have been with its author from the start.”
–Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“Uproarious . . . In each story the ornate and the vulgate slam together and make it rain polysyllabic absurdity.”
–The Wall Street Journal

“Nostalgically enjoyable . . . The stories in Mere Anarchy deliver the same joys and foibles that have been with its author from the start.”
–The New York Times

“Brilliant neurotica . . . unfailingly entertaining . . . [an] obsessive and seriously funny book.”
–Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Like the Carnegie’s one-pound sandwiches, Allen’s literary slapstick is . . . comedy on wry.”
–USA Today

“I am greatly relieved that the universe is finally explainable. I was beginning to think it was me.”–Woody Allen

Here, in his first collection since his three hilarious classics Getting Even, Without Feathers, and Side Effects, Woody Allen has managed to write a book that not only answers the most profound questions of human existence but is the perfect size to place under any short table leg to prevent wobbling.

“I awoke Friday, and because the universe is expanding it took me longer than usual to find my robe,” he explains in a piece on physics called “Strung Out.” In other flights of inspirational sanity we are introduced to a cast of characters only Allen could imagine: Jasper Nutmeat, Flanders Mealworm, and the independent film mogul E. Coli Biggs, just to name a few. Whether he is writing about art, sex, food, or crime (“Pugh has been a policeman as far back as he can remember. His father was a notorious bank robber, and the only way Pugh could get to spend time with him was to apprehend him”) he is explosively funny.

In “This Nib for Hire,” a Hollywood bigwig comes across an author’s book in a little country store and describes it in a way that aptly captures this magnificent volume: “Actually,” the producer says, “I’d never seen a book remaindered in the kindling section before.”

The New York Times Book Review - David Kamp

Mere Anarchy isn't a full return to the glory days. The Perelmanisms are sometimes laid on too thick…and there's nothing on the level of "The Kugelmass Episode," his flawless short story from Side Effects about a bald City College professor who, via a magician's cabinet, is transported into the novel Madame Bovary. Still, it's good to find Allen redevoted to a form—the silly short, or "casual," in New Yorker parlance—that few besides him and Perelman have mastered…It may not be fashionable to say so, least of all in Woody Allen's house, but the man, when he's on form, is as capable as ever of delivering pleasure.

Woody Allen’s prolific career as a comic, writer, and filmmaker has now spanned more than five decades. He writes frequently for The New Yorker and is the author of Without Feathers, Getting Even, and Side Effects, among other books.