I finished it, and I liked it overall, but I had a hard time keeping track of what was going on. I was also really confused by the ending. I'm now going to have to do some research, because it might be that I just missed something, but it didn't add up.

Taking its title from a line in "The Walrus and the Carpenter" in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, this is O. Henry's only novel and its main claim to fame is that he coined the phrase "banana republic" in its pages.It's a novel in the form of linked short stories, like Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kittredge, recounting the schemes of a cast of American ex-pats and local villagers living in Coralio, in the fictional Central American country of Anchuria, orbiting around the attempt by Presi...

Mock-elegant to the point of being outlandishly comic, the sense of fun is only ruined for the modern reader by the liberal use (the ill-liberal use?) of racial humor. Yeah I know, those where different times, and genteel ladies dropped the n-bomb in polite conversation on the way to church, but so much of the humor relies on the reader sharing the narrators' opinion on who the "superior race" is that it rather spoils the book for anyone looking simply to be entertained. Want to read it as a pie...

A collection of stories set in a fictional "banana republic" of Anchuria, likely modeled after Honduras, where the author, O. Henry, spent some time evading the law after embezzlement and tax evasion charges. The characters are largely American businessmen and government officials, who are all to happy to pull fast cons and loaf about in hammocks, pining for their lost loves and failed dealings in the States. There is humor, primarily slapstick style, in the vaudevillian antics of the expats. Th...

This is one of my all-time favorite books, one that I re-read often. The language is brilliant and humorous, the setting is tropical, and the characters are memorable. Each chapter could stand alone as a short story, but they string together to form a novel. I read it when I need to remember that life shouldn't be taken quite so seriously. I can't recommend this one enough.

I am a sucker for the short story and O. Henry is a master. I started reading this a few days ago and could not put it down. Some stories are better than others, but that is always the case. What I most enjoyed with this collection was the idioms and old-style slang. A bonus was the unexpected twists and turns as well as the absolute lack of political correctness.

This is by far my favorite short story collection by O. Henry. The tales take place in the same locale, a fictitious banana republic of the American tropics. There is an over-arcing plot that runs through the stories, concerning the ruling potentate's abdication and sudden departure with the nation's treasury funds, creating a mystery that isn't solved until the final vignette. Along the way, we meet an amusing cast of characters, each one with his own colorful background. The best part of the b...

When I started with this collection of inter-connected short stories, I was not very impressed. I could not find the charm and attraction that I found in his other famous short stories like the very well known 'The Gift of the Magi'. But slowly and surely, this collection slipped a tight grip around me. I started enjoying his wit and got adjusted to the archaic English. Although it did slow me down a lot, because I cannot proceed without knowing the meaning :) the archaic English as well as the

This might be one that I'll have to revisit with a future reread, but for now I've done the best I could to wrangle my takeaway thoughts into a haiku:"Like a world apart.The fleeing, seeking, and scammedHave that one promise."

A fairly well-knit collection of short stories, each displaying O. Henry's knack for concealing while he puts on a show. The book has a comic portrayal of the tropics, both its volatile political climate and its meteorological one. The book shows its age by opining race-based comments about the inhabitants, but the white characters don't exactly get the buff and polish either.

My favorite stories were "The Shamrock and the Palm", "Shoes", "Ships", and "Masters of Arts".Some funny quotes:“He was, in reality, a categorical idealist who strove to anamorphosize the dull verities of life by means of brandy and rum”"President Losada ordered from a French sculptor a marble group including himself with Napoleon, Alexander the Great, and one or two others whom he deemed worthy of the honour""You tear up ten thousand dollars like an old rag because the way you've spread on five...

Love love love this!!! This is a must read!everyone must read this! I read his gift of magi and found it good and wanted to read more of his writings.. i got to know this is his famous work and read it. Guess what? I totally fell in love with his writing after reading this..Oh what a fine write this is..language is complex but when you get to understand it you'll totally love it. The witty and sarcastic way of language have me. I still can't believe it is his first book..ohh such a fine write..d...

This is definitely not O. Henry at his best. His strength is with the individual short story - this book is a collection of short stories which is supposed to have a common thread. I began to enjoy the stories more when I stopped trying to fit them all together and read them simply as short stories, separate and distinct from one another. The resolution of the overarching story was, I admit, quite funny.

I love O. Henry. He had a unique grammar and diction. This book is a chain a short stories that could just as easily be called a novel. But I think the contrivances at the end, which are meant to tie the thing together, rather undermine the charm of the book.Still, this is well worth reading. If for no other reason, it gives you a taste of what O'Henry's exile in Latin America was like.

Disgusting vile racist shit. I vaguely recall reading O. Henry stories in high school and enjoying them. But this shit? UghThink of every single xenophobic racist stereotype and slur and derogatory name one might use to think of/describe American Indians & black people, Italians, Irish, and South Americans... and each one was used in this wretched book... multiple times!

I probably should have loved this, but I just couldn't let myself enjoy it.

This has got to be among the best reads describing the odd friendship between colonialism and business interests, staged on the backdrop of Latin America, with the original banana republic of Anchuria. I landed up reading this after I learnt that this is where the term banana republic originated from. A free copy on Project Gutenberg and I could not stop reading this book once I started.In fact, while Sidney Porter (aka O.Henry) wrote this mainly about the fruit companies in USA (think of Dole f...

A collection of stories with a common thread and an intriguing mystery at its outset. I thought the twist of the mystery trite although the clues were there and the pieces fit. But learning the resolution is nothing compared to O'Henry's brilliant storytelling. Will definitely read more O'Henry works.

This was an interesting collection of stories. The setting is the same throughout-a small coastal town in South America- with the same cast of characters-expatriates who have found themselves living there. All the characters are disreputable, on-the-make shysters with the slang usually found in old mobster movies. This is contrasted with the epic, high-flown language of the narration, which adds an extra layer of plain ridiculousness and sly humor. I enjoyed reading this, but, except for a few r...