My Four Weeks in France

Ring Lardner, the master of American deadpan humor, applies his savage wit to the First World War in this gleefully absurd travelogue. Dispatched to France as a war correspondent despite possessing zero military credentials, Lardner chronicles his improbable journey from civilian tenderfoot to seasick passenger aboard a troopship crawling through submarine waters. His real enemy isn't the Germans but the endless parade of absurdity: pompous officials, neurotic fellow passengers, and the sheer bureaucratic madness of wartime travel. Every vignette crackles with his trademark economy of language and devastating understatement. Four weeks become an excuse to skewer everything from shipboard meals to close calls with death, all delivered in that distinctive Lardner voice - the plain-spoken American observer who notices everything and pretends to be impressed by nothing. The war provides the backdrop; human folly provides the comedy.