Art Buch­wald is a mas­ter of the essay. In each entry in this col­lec­tion of over 100 essays lam­poon­ing every­thing from Sad­dam Hus­sein to Wal-Mart to couch pota­toes, Buch­wald com­bines humor and bite — and he does it all in 700 words. Each essay takes an issue cen­tral to our lives today and pokes fun at it. The vocab­u­lary is sim­ple. The sen­tence struc­ture is sim­ple. The thought process is bril­liant. And fun­ny. And right on target.

Buch­wald has been doing this for decades. He shows no favorites. Nobody is safe. Noth­ing is sacred. In one excel­lent piece, Sav­ing Time, he makes fun of the new rules requir­ing pas­sen­gers to get to the air­port two hours before take-off. And then what, he asks. ​“Once you go through the met­al detec­tor, what do you do to kill time?” Of course, Buch­wald pro­ceeds to list his own idio­syn­crat­ic suggestions. 

Call it the great gift of analy­sis, call it com­mon sense. Beat­ing Around The Bush is vin­tage Buchwald.