The Winner of the slow bicycle race

the long version

The Winner of the Slow Bicycle Race collects all Krassner's most recent stories, as well as his most famous satirical pieces from past years. The book is Swiftian in intention and contemporary in subject matter. It reveals Krassner to have the heart of a muckraker and the spirituality of a seeker after truth. But get ready! On the surface, Krassner's writings seamlessly blend factual reporting and suggestive misstatement. "The truth," says Krassner, "is Silly Putty;" and "cultural anarchy is freedom of speech.". Kneading fantasy into reality, Krassner ferrets out the higher truths that spotlight the absurdity all around. In Krassner's world, Lyndon Johnson chuckles over the corpse of JFK, a psychiatrist hypnotically regresses a woman who shot her television set, and Nancy Reagan's "Just say no to drugs" becomes "If anybody tries to sell you an ounce of marijuana for $500, that's way too expensive, so just say no."