Portuguese Irregular Verbs

The author of the highly successful NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY offers another treasure in this gentle satire of academics. This first book of a trilogy chronicles the activities of Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, professor of philology and author of PORTUGUESE IRREGULAR VERBS, a scholarly tome of 1200 pages, only 200 copies of which have been sold and even fewer of which (if any) have been read. (Von Igelfeld's female dentist uses her copy as the perfect step stool for reaching patients.) Paul Hecht's deep baritone gives the necessary pseudo-scholarly tone to academicians measuring out their lives in Dravidian verb shifts, Urdu subjunctives, and Early Irish obscenities. Hecht takes the seemingly pointless minutiae of archaic grammars and transforms them into moments of quiet mirth, always investing the bumbling von Igelfeld with endearing goodness. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

May 15, 2005
In these sequential collections of stories by the author of the No. 1 LadiesDetective Agency, the venue is Europe rather than Botswana. Dr. Moriz-Maira von Ingelfeld, professor at the Institute of Romance Philology in Regensburg, Germany, and his colleagues Dr. Florianus Prinzel and Dr. Detlev Amadeus Unterholzer share in eight comic vignettes based on the classic form of minutiae inflated to monstrous proportions. In one installment, von Ingelfeld falls in love with his dentist. Through procrastination in declaring his amour, his colleague becomes engaged to her first. Even Paul Hecht's lively narration with accurate pronunciation of European languages can't breathe the charm of Gabarone into these novellas. Purchase for demand for Smith fans.Sandy Glover, Camas P.L., WA

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