Allen Mendenhall’s Hilarious & Ominous Novel

Samuel Johnson said that he preferred to read according to inclination, for “what we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read.” That is my desired modus lectandi as well, but my inclination is often put in second, third, and even fourth place by the duties and chaos of life. Allen Mendenhall’s A Glooming Peace This Morning, was a victim of such chaos. Having procured it last spring, I started it, laughed my way through two chapters, put it down to prepare some classes, wrote some other pieces I had promised other publications, finished spring grades, and promptly lost the book in my house.