Add a Dash of Pity

Book excerpt: Peter Ustinov was revered as one of the world's truly legendary entertainers. As an actor, producer, director, novelist, playwright, and columnist, his body of work was not only vast and thoroughly impressive, but enduring. Add a Dash of Pity, a superb collection of short stories, shows Sir Peter at his narrative, perceptive best.Ustinov possessed the uncommon ability to amuse and touch readers simultaneously, a talent which has nowhere been better displayed than in this fascinating array of short stories, which includes: The Man Who Took It Easy, The Wingless Icarus, The Man in the Moon, A Place in the Shade, A Word in the World's Ear, There Are 43,200 Seconds in a Day, The Aftertaste, and the title piece, Add a Dash of Pity.[Ustinov] has the rarest of the satirist's gifts that of using mockery to build character and to express compassion. . . . His sympathy goes to weak, likeable people struggling to keep in step with the demands of social convention; it is against these . . . that he directs his most savage comedy. -The Times Literary Supplement[The title story is] superb, moving, intriguing. Ustinov, with perfect timing and detail, has here written a great short story, and from this point his book does not falter. -The Daily ExpressUstinov writes with great wit and fills these memorable tales with clever, parenthetical insights along with a clear moral thrust. -Publishers Weekly. . . sprightly, brightly written stories. Ustinov has a pleasantly light touch, both with his graceful, comma-sprinkled sentences and his characterization. . .It's almost surprising that Ustinov isn't a staple in creative writing classes; these carefully conceived slices of life are models of the 20th-century short story. -Sacramento News & Review. . . intelligent, philosophical and satirical. The characters are astonishingly vivid and dynamically presented. . . The writing is intensely detailed, journalistic, and yet Ustinov lets dialogue do what it should doshow rather than tell the unilluminated facts about characters and situations. -Small Press Magazine