Fred Gross Stories
Fred Gross is one of Ring Lardner’s warmest comic creations, a good-natured Chicago policeman with far more ambition than common sense. Drawn from Lardner’s book Own Your Own Home, these stories follow Fred as he sets his heart on moving his family out of the city and into a house of their own, only to run headlong into the small disasters of suburban life. Lardner tells it all in Fred’s own barely grammatical voice, mining laughs from misspellings, tangled logic, and the gap between what Fred means and what he actually says. Beneath the fun sits a sharp look at ordinary American striving in the years around the First World War. This free PDF and EPUB edition collects the Fred Gross stories in one place.
About the Author
Ring Lardner (1885-1933) was an American sportswriter, humorist, and short-story writer celebrated for his sharp ear for everyday speech. Beginning as a baseball reporter, he became one of the country’s most admired satirists, influencing writers from Hemingway to Fitzgerald with his deadpan vernacular comedy.
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