| Guy Grand, 53, is an eccentric multibillionaire who spends roughly $10 million a year playing practical jokes on society. These range from the small and silly (having a large man mash crackers with a sledge hammer in Times Square, offering a man $6,000 to eat a parking ticket, releasing a ravenous panther at a prestigious dog show) to the massive (sparking racial and religious riots in Chicago, hunting in the Congo with a 75mm howitzer, building and selling 100-foot convertible autos, filling a giant concrete vat with offal and 10,000 hundred-dollar-bills, and inviting people to go swimming for cash) -- his stated purpose being to "make it hot for them." His greatest prank is the maiden voyage of the S.S. Magic Christian, a luxury liner filled with wealthy guests, freaks and performers, and an actor who pretends to be a drunken captain. Southern's 1960 farce is dated and not terribly funny. | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of book? - humorous Time/era of story - 1930's-1950's Life of a profession: Job/Profession/Status story Yes Main Character Gender - Male Profession/status: Age: - 40's-50's Ethnicity/Nationality Main Adversary Identity: - society Intelligence - below average Setting How much descriptions of surroundings? - 2 () United States Yes City? Yes City: - New York Misc setting Writing Style Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog |
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