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Moab Is My Washpot

Author: Stephen Fry
Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

29 reviews
Sales Rank: 1014

Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.2

ISBN: 0099457040
EAN: 9780099457046
ASIN: 0099457040

Publication Date: August 5, 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available

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Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

fantastic read July 11, 2008
like all stephen fry's book this one was brilliant. a fantastic author. once i started reading i could hardly put it down. it's got me started on reading all of his others.

5 out of 5 stars

A thoroughly delightful read July 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I must admit I approached "Moab Is My Washpot" with a tiny bit of trepidation, fearing a bit of a luvvie's memoirs of his time in the theatre and the Cambridge footlights and so on. I am not a bona fide fan of Stephen Fry as such so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the book was such a delightful, poignant, moving and amusing read. It largely takes in the time from his birth to when he gets acepted at Cambridge. For anyone who had a middle-class upbringing in the sixties this book will undoubtedly bring back so many memories - of delightful primary school activities, of school fetes, of bullying grammar/public school teachers, of the hierarchy of children. It is told in a sensitive, affectionate, sometimes self-deprecating but never indulgent way. Fry's recollections are those shared by so many of us - resentful that we didn't win a primary school competition and so on - and he manages to recall certain characters from his youth with such genuine affection. The descriptions of the kindlier of his teachers is some of the most appreciative, evocative and genuine kind writing I have read in a long time.

Fry realises when his behaviour was worthy of shame and opens his heart honestly and accordingly, yet he is never mawkish, merely breathtakingly sincere. Even his accounts of his crush on a younger boy are touching in the extreme, even for one who has not experienced such a thing, it was so vividly described, that one found oneself appreciating the boy's beauty oneself ! In general the school passages are magnificent in every way. Fry really takes the reader into that world which now seems so very long ago.

In keeping with the man, there are also many touches of humour but is nearly all dealt with not unconsiderable pathos. Stephen Fry is a gentleman and a scholar. I could not put this book down and enjoyed every page of it.

5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant July 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Like many of the other reviewers, I found I couldn't put this book down. True some of the language gets a bit complicated in places but Fry's amazing narrative style is so addictive that the few stumbling parts are easily forgiven. It's brilliantly funny, heart-breakingly sad and refreshingly honest, after reading it I would challenge anyone not to feel even slightly moved. Personally I felt a whole rainbow of emotions and I am so glad I read it. I would recommend this to anyone.

4 out of 5 stars

FUNNY-SAD July 5, 2008
We love Stephen Fry, and this book was entertainingly written as you'd expect. However, there were elements of sadness too and some of our members found this jarred with the humourous parts. But overall we liked this book!

1 out of 5 stars

a total head mash! June 11, 2008
0 out of 8 found this review helpful

I'm really sorry to spoil the party. it appears most of the reviews of this are excellent. Well i'm afraid i disagree. Maybe i'm not upto the academic or intellectual waffle that this book offers. It is a seriously hard book to get your head around. It starts out by fry relaying his schoolboy antics and the silly names they gave each other, he's constantly using really long and elaborate metaphors and going back in history to describe his feelings. Its all very sweet that he wants to share the workings of his mind but i'm afraid i found it a bit mind bending. I felt as if Fry had written the book whilst under the influence of some mind altering drug.