Hello Goodbye Hello

The concept behind Hello Goodbye Hello (#231) by Craig Brown is simple, but brilliant.  Each of the 101 meetings between two twentieth century persons is connected in daisy chain fashion.  James Dean meets Alec Guiness; in the next anecdote Alec Guiness meets Evelyn Waugh, who goes on to meet Igor Stravinsky who in turn meets Walt Disney and so on.  Rock and royalty, artists and actors, famous politicians and other infamous characters are all here. And for the American version, Mr. Brown has included a brief "Who's Who" of the British notables appearing in his book.

Many of these meetings are totally unexpected between people whom you never would have guessed had any reason to meet, but all are entertaining in their own way.  Craig Brown seems to have chosen the encounters to include in this book based on some juicy bit of gossip or salacious detail.  By treating them as fodder for his gossip grist mill, he certainly seems to aim at knocking the patina off his subjects' reputations.  His admiration is reserved for only a select few. 

If your favorite TV shows include celebrity life styles, and you can't resist reading the tabloid headlines when you are standing in the checkout line at the supermarket, you'll enjoy this upscale version, and learn a number of interesting facts along the way, to boot.  One notable fact about Hello Goodbye Hello itself is that each of the 101 stories consists of exactly 1, 001 words (excluding the footnotes!).  Can you spell OCD?!  A book that's easy to pick up and put down, it's perfect for on-the-go reading.