Mr Littlejohn Vintage Book by Martin Flavin C1940

Reference id: neZPmRwsvQY 832

Vintage book, Mr. Littlejohn, by Martin Flavin, Harper & Brothers Publishers, copyright 1940, second edition.

Please see pics for visuals and condition.

Review from Amazon:

"The year is 1937. Horatio Littlejon, president of Rosydent Inc., maker of health and beauty products, has had it up to here with the inanities and pressures of the business world; he decides to chuck it all and go on a cross-country quest for the true meaning of life: an "Expedition to Examine the Enigma." He disguises himself by a paste-on black mustache, rents a car in NYC, and heads west. Unfortunately, the disguise makes him look like Joe Schmulz, alias Black Beard, Public Enemy No. 1 at the time, which will add greatly to the humor in the story.

It, of course, is a "road" novel, as old as the Odyssey, and Mr. Littlejohn encounters as many strange and wonderful people, and experiences as many off-beat adventures, as Ulysses ever did. From the opportunistic prostitute he meets by sheer accident at the beginning of his journey who becomes his initial driver, to the wacky Dr. Knittwitz who declares him insane and protects his identity at the end, Littlejohn gradually comes to the conclusion that he loves life, that its all around him, and that he must grasp it. He is a totally new man by storys end.

Flavins humor is on full display; I found myself laughing out loud on almost every page for the first half of the book. The tone becomes a bit more serious later on, especially when he relates the long stories to two individuals met along the way - one a blind violinist from Vienna, the other a proud Mexican who traced his lineage back to Cortez. Flavin pokes fun at the FBI as J. Edgar Hoover and his G men scour the country looking for Black Beard and, of course, never catch him: he dies from acute indigestion in a hotel room across the street from the FBI building in Washington. In addition to the humor, however, there is wisdom here: greed, poverty, love, and loyalty all come under scrutiny. Most of all, Littlejohn comes to realize that "if life isnt fun it is something less than nothing." Not only was this a hopeful message for Depression era Americans, it still rings true today. Definitely worth checking out."