After three decades of prodigious film work & some unfortunate tabloid adventures it's easy to forget that Woody Allen began his career as one heck of a great comedy writer. Getting Even a collection of his late '60s magazine pieces offers a look into Allen's bag of shtick back when it was new. From the supposed memoirs of Hitler's barber: "Then in January of '45 a plot by several generals to shave Hitler's moustache in his sleep failed when von Stauffenberg in the darkness of Hitler's bedroom shaved off one of the Führer's eyebrows instead..." Even tho the idea of writing jokes about old Adolf--or addled rabbis or Maatjes herring--isn't nearly as fresh as it used to be Getting Even still delivers plenty of laughs. At his best Woody can achieve a level of transcendent craziness that no other writer can match. If you're looking for a book to dip into at random or a gift for someone who's seen Sleeper 13 times Getting Even is a classic with 316 000 copies sold to date.
