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Re-reading this for maybe the third or fourth time: funny and sad and funny again. A happy ending with a wedding, so by Shakespeare's rules that makes it a comedy. The movie is actually well done (Michael Douglas shlubbing around in a woman's pink chenille bathrobe is iconic) but there are are layers and back story you'll only get from the book.
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Yes, it's embarrassing how many times my inner life corresponds with Grady Tripp's, but that could be said for any middle-aged writer, teacher or former Wonder Boy. I don't smoke dope like Grady, and I don't have my boss's dead dog, a dead boa constrictor and a tuba in my car trunk-- but the butt-cheek impression left by a James Brown impersonator in the hood of my car is not outside the realm of possibility.