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Have you heard the one about the new computer owner who mistook the CD-ROM player for a cup holder? Or the woman who thought her brains were oozing out of a gunshot wound, when the "truth" was that when her Pillsbury Poppin' Fresh can exploded, striking her on the head with the lid, the goo she felt was biscuit dough? Jan Harold Brunvand, professor emeritus at the University of Utah and author of numerous urban-legend collections, including The Vanishing Hitchhiker, The Choking Doberman, Curses! Broiled Again, and American Folklore: An Encyclopedia, has been studying urban legends for some 20 years, and his new book, Too Good to Be True, relates more than 200 of these indestructible tales.
There are relatively recent stories based on modern technology, such as the classic microwaved pet, and yarns that have been making the urban-legend circuit for decades, such as the solid-cement-Cadillac story, which can be traced back to the 1940s, at least, involving a cement-truck driver who spies a new Cadillac convertible in his driveway and his wife talking to some strange man. He dumps his load of concrete on the Cadillac, but later discovers the stranger was a car dealer and the car was to be a gift from his wife, one she'd spent years saving her pennies for.
The stories are grouped by subject, including "Dog Tales" and "Just Desserts," "Sexcapades" and "Losing Face." There are baby stories and work stories, criminal tales and college anecdotes, plus stories of mistaken identity, human nature, and technology. Brunvand achieves more, however, than a mere compendium of highly entertaining stories. He discusses the nature of urban legends--those almost believable, addictively retellable tales that always happened to a friend of a friend (FOAF, in folklorist parlance)--and for each individual story, Brunvand includes as much of its history as he has been able to trace, including newspaper accounts, alternative versions, and the story's natural cycle, that is, how many years, typically, between resurfacings. The result is an exceptionally engaging book and a great resource for debunking that next story, as heard from a friend by that unnamed acquaintance of unassailable honesty, that sounds just a little too perfect to swallow whole. --Stephanie Gold
From Publishers Weekly
If a story sounds too good to be true, well, then it's probably an urban legend. Brunvand, the nation's leading authority on these contemporary folktales, draws from five previous collections (The Choking Doberman, Curses! Broiled Again!, etc.), from letters to his syndicated columns and from newspapers around the country, in this truly colossal anthology of horrendous and hilarious stories that sound as if they're true and most of the tellers believe are true, but somehow can never be verified. These are stories told by a FOAF (a friend of a friend) or a neighbor of the radio dispatcher who knows the deputy who talked to the doctor who treated 18 slash victims at the local mall. Many are familiar talesAof the hook heard rasping against the car door handle, of alligators in the sewers of New York, of earwigs in ears and spiders in bouffant hairdosAthis last traced back to the 13th century. Everyone will find at least two or three stories they could have sworn really happened. These are stories that turn up in every region of the country, every walk of life, and that invariably involve laughing paramedics, a dead grandmother stashed on the luggage rack, a fantastically cheap price for a Porsche or an exorbitant one for a cookie recipe from Neiman MarcusAor is it Marshall Fields? In demonstrating how such stories spread, change and endure, and how certain kinds of stories attach themselves to certain franchises and products ("Kentucky Fried Rat" is an especially gruesome example), Brunvand has constructed not only an entertaining anthology, but an excellent introduction to the study of folklore itself. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Brunvand (The Choking Doberman, The Vanishing Hitchhiker) is the dean of urban folkloreAfor 20 years he has collected and documented tall tales swapped at social gatherings. This anthology embraces over 200 fanciful, amusing, and often exaggerated stories and beliefs that have, through repetition, become part of the American oral heritage. Brunvand invented the acronym FOAF (Friend of a Friend), the anonymous source of every tale. Everyone has a few favorite stories: alligators in the sewer and pets in the microwave are familiar to most folks. Collectively, this is the best gathering of urban legends extant. They have passed through generations and represent an important body of traditions, myths, folkways, and folksay. The tales are thematically arranged, e.g., "Bringing Up Baby" is an assembly of episodes of child-rearing gone wrong. Thoroughly researched and exhaustive, this fascinating work is characterized by impressive scholarship. Unconditionally recommended for all audiences.ARichard K. Burns, MSLS, Hatboro, PA Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Chicago Tribune
If you enjoy these too-good-to-be-true tales, Brunvand's new book will give you hours of pleasure.
Tampa Tribune
Informative and entertaining.... Brunvand has collected more than 200 of the most-repeated and best-known examples of modern folk-myth.
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