The Turps by Damon Runyon

I found this tattered old book in my library. I knew Damon Runyon as a writer that specialized in loveable crooks. But this is an epistolary story about a very ordinary couple – Joe and Ethel Turp – living in Brooklyn. Joe is a simple man that cannot quite grasp his fate. Ethel is a loveable nitwit. I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that this was the inspiration for Jackie Gleason’s “Honeymooners.” In any case, it’s funny. Laugh out loud funny. And a wonderful reprieve from the real world.