Book Review: Jumbo Shrimp  Subscribe E-mail  Words Bookshop  Link to this Site  Take Our Survey  Add to Favorites

BORED? Play our free word gamesINTERACTIVE HANGMAN

Jumbo Shrimp by Bruce Fein

Buy from Amazon in the US
Buy from Amazon in the UK

Recently published, Jumbo Shrimp: The Ultimate Oxymoron Book celebrates oxymoronic humor with illustrated contradictory captions. Author Bruce Fein has brought together one hundred oxymorons with corresponding wonderful black and white drawings by illustrator John Accurso.

Fein takes a broad view of oxymorons, and the book is all the funnier for it. He includes many phrases that do not, in the strict sense, fall into this category, such as Military Intelligence and Microsoft Works. Yet, considered as oxymorons, these phrases take on new, and often ironic, meanings. The pictures bring them to life, and the result is a great book for dipping into whenever you feel like a laugh.

Others enjoyable inclusions are: Act Naturally, Hell's Angels, Good Grief, Almost Perfect, Bad Luck, Criminal Lawyer, and Sanitary Dump. You can see some samples from Jumbo Shrimp below: Accidentally On Purpose, Pretty Ugly, and Awfully Good.


© Bruce Fein, 2003

The idea for the book came, years ago, from George Carlin's now-famous routine about conversations in everyday life. Fein was so intrigued by these ideas that he began collecting lists of oxymorons. And when he met Accurso several years later, he knew that he was the man to help turn these amusing lists into a fantastic book.


© Bruce Fein, 2003

Jumbo Shrimp is truly an interactive wordplay book. It is available both as a large format paperback (which would double as a great coloring book) and as an e-book on CD-ROM that allows you to view the hilarious oxymoronic illustrations as a slideshow or set them as your computer screensaver. As an additional bonus, the images in the electronic version are all in color.

But that's not all. At the back of the book there is an order form that you can use to buy large laminated color posters of your favorite cartoons from the book. And the cover illustration (the most famous oxymoron of all: Jumbo Shrimp) is available printed on a wide range of merchandise from t-shirts and caps to mugs and mouse pads.


© Bruce Fein, 2003

Bruce Fein is a retired ad man and creative guru from New York but now living in Las Vegas. He says that words have always guided his personal and professional life, and "it has always fascinated me how people can misinterpret even the simplest words or phrases". He hopes that this book will be simultaneously funny and educational, and we hope you will agree with us that he has succeeded in that.

John Accurso is an artist, cartoonist, and teacher. His work has appeared in Nickelodeon Magazine. He lives with his family in California.

Get the book – or the CD – today, and we're sure you'll find it dead funny!

Buy from Amazon in the US
Buy from Amazon in the UK

Do you know anyone else who would enjoy this? Email this page to a friend.
Also: Sign up for our free web site updates here.

[Top of Page] [Home Page] ©1999-2024 Fun-with-words.com
Recommended Book:
Jumbo Shrimp The Ultimate Oxymoron Book...
Buy this book at Amazon
View all in this category:
Oxymorons Books
Hundreds more books at:
Wordplay Book Store




 
Wild Madagascar on BBC Two
with David Attenborough