Friday means Friday’s
Forgotten Books hosted by Patti Abbott here.
Barry is back today with his review of The
Education of H*y*m*a*n K*a*p*l*a*n by Leonard Q. Ross.
THE EDUCATION OF H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N
(1937) by Leonard Q. Ross
Reviewed by Barry
Ergang
During the 1930s, Leo Rosten, under the pseudonym Leonard Q.
Ross, wrote a series of comical short stories published in The New Yorker about Hyman Kaplan, an immigrant attending Mr.
Parkhill's class at the American Night Preparatory School for Adults
("English—Americanization—Civics—Preparation for Naturalization").
Why the stars between the letters of Kaplan's name? Because
that's the way he writes it on the assignments he turns in, as explained in
"The Rather Difficult Case of Mr. K*a*p*l*a*n," the first story in
the book: "[Mr. Parkhill] turned the page over and read the name. It was
printed in large, firm letters with red crayon. Each letter was outlined in blue.
Between every two letters was a star, carefully drawn, in green." It isn't
long before Parkhill realizes that Kaplan's will be a challenging case, as
demonstrated by his efforts in Recitation and Speech, and in English
composition. In the former categories, for instance, he says the "most
famous tree American wriders" are "Jeck Laundon, Valt Viterman, and
the author of 'Hawk L. Barry-Feen,' one Mocktvain. Mr. Kaplan took pains to
point out that he did not mention Relfvaldo Amerson because 'He is a poyet, an'
I'm talkink abot wriders.'" The remainder of the story, which will
definitely elicit readers' smiles and, possibly, out-and-out laughter, concerns the meaning of the word
"vast" and Parkhill trying to answer Kaplan's question about the
meaning of what "sounded, in Mr. Kaplan's rendition, like 'a big
department.'"
In "Mr. K*a*p*l*a*n, the Comparative, and the
Superlative," Parkhill has delayed calling upon Kaplan for two weeks to
present his composition for an analysis by the class. But everyone else has
written his or her hundred-word composition entitled "My Job," so
Parkhill can't put it off any longer. The comments, corrections and debates
between Kaplan and Parkhill and Kaplan and classmates lead to a comical lesson
about positive, comparative, and superlative forms of adjectives.
"Mr. K*a*p*l*a*n's Hobo" has our hero once again
participating in a Recitation and Speech session, this time talking about the
joys of a vacation: "De sky! De son! De stoss! De clods. De frash air in
de longs. All—all is pot from Netcher!" He prefaces this by explaining his
"hobo," which leads to corrections by Parkhill and Miss Mitnick, and
arguments with Mr. Bloom, and Mrs. Moskowitz. (No, I'm not going to reveal what
"hobo" actually means.)
By now you get the idea, sparing me the need to mention the
premise of every story: each of the fifteen concerns Mr. Parkhill (whom Kaplan addresses
as "Mr. Pockheel") calling on various students to present
compositions or to answer questions about assignments, and Kaplan presenting in
his own unique manner his takes on said assignments, usually with bizarre logic
and comical results. I'd be remiss, however, if I didn't single out the
must-read "Mr. K*a*p*l*a*n and Shakespeare," in which Kaplan presents
his interpretation of the "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow"
speech from Macbeth—as perceived by
"Julius Scissor."
If you love the English language and wordplay, and have a
sense of humor, you'll definitely grin your way through The Education of H*y*m*a*n
K*a*p*l*a*n and, most likely, laugh out loud more than a few times
as I did. Highly recommended.
Barry Ergang © 2014
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