"The Blade" makes you laugh! Anyone who has had a high school yearbook will recognize the format. Using sheep in place of humans, Novello manages to capture all the personalities that every high school has--the jocks, the preppies, the druggies, and even the multi-sibling families that have students in each grade level! Each page of this "yearbook" has something hilarious to read, whether it pertains to the school French Club, the Soccer team, the faculty & staff, cheerleaders, or class field trips. Quite simply, it is a truly fun book, cleverly written and produced. Even the local advertisements in the back of the book are hilarious! Unfortunately, "The Blade" is "out-of-stock" and is not easy to find. If it ever reprints, I want multiple copies. Friends keep stealing my original copy

I couldn't stop laughing from the cover to the back page. I swear I went to school with these sheep. They looked just like people I knew in high school. This book must be reprinted! It's a classic.

When I'm in a large used book store, I always dig through the 'humor' section hoping against hope to find another Shellville Annual. I've given away all I could find; a high school yearbook with photos of sheep that LOOK exactly like their names and titles, e.g., the Board of Education looks like a Sheep Board of Directors. It's an inspired work of art that deserves to be reprinted. I promise to buy at least 25 ...

Only explanation I can come up with is that Novello somewhere found a stash of stuffed sheep. Otherwise, it's hard to imagine a sheep sitting in a Dairy-Queen-type booth with it's paws crossed, cigarettes in the ash tray, etc. Or the Low Riders Club, with sheep sitting up in the car.

One of the most inspired projects I've ever seen! "Leaves of grass blowing in the wind like leaves of grass." Or the bus that goes from Shellville once a week, "Three times as fast as a tractor and at least twice as comfortable."

As interesting as it is to see Novello expand upon his letter writing, there's something disappointing about this second volume. Perhaps it's the introductio of Lazlo into a world in which he's already known. The responses from correspondents who already "get the joke" make one feel as though they're peeking behind the Wizard's curtain.

Still, given the pungence of the concept and the quality of Novello's writing, this couldn't help but be another good read. It just couldn't possibly live up to the original volume.

Now that we have imitation Lazlo Toth's - even the Jerkey Boys are derivative, aren't they! - let's not forget that the same guy who puts on the big hat and sunglasses can be someone else when he wants to be.

I just wish he would have lunch with me at Sushi-To-Die-For?

Are you game?

The original book ('The Lazlo Letters') was set in the mid-70s and was essentially a tremedously funny, well-executed goof on Watergate and its participants. 'Citizen Lazlo' is wider in its timeframe (1977 - 1992) and focus (all over the map).

For flat out hilarity, nothing can beat (as mentioned by an earlier reviewer) the "Fit For a President Microwave TV Dinner" idea that 'Toth' pitches to the Campbell Soup Company. [Sample: Nixon-Mao Frozen Chinese Banquet...eat the meal that ended 23 years of hostility.]

My favorite has got to be his pitch to Kinney Shoes for a new advertising campaign based on "The Wind Beneath My Wings," entitled "The Feet Within My Shoes":

Did I ever tell you you're my hero?

Tho' you're the farthest parts of me

I can run faster than a beagle

You are the feet beneath my knees

The cadence of these letters continues the unique, hilarious style perfected by Novello/Toth in his first book. Check out a sample greeting to Nicolae Ceausescu in 1988: "Belated Happy Birthday! Stand up! You deserve it!"

Truly laugh-out-loud funny stuff.

One note of interest: since this is the second volume, some of the respondents are in on the joke. Those that are respond with a matching level of humor.

Long before the less thoughtful and often ridiculous "Letters from a Nut," Don Novello's alter ego, Lazlo Toth, was already making a name for himself in the world of politics and big business. Perhaps the funniest thing about this book (and the succeeding volume) is the emergence of Lazlo's oddball personality in his oft-misspelled but earnest proposals, congratulations, and complaints. Though some of the subject matter hasn't aged very well, this is still hilarious stuff.

In the Mae Brussell Collection, I came across this wonderful book by Don Novello. Humerous, educational, empathetic, insightful - it is a must read. I assume that Don Novello (Lazlo) still has the original letters he received from the powerful public figures to whom he wrote. If so, I hope that he prices these ageless treasures and publishes a book detailing the current worth of his priceless collection. Curators, such as myself, would love to see that sequel.

During the classic years of Saturday Night Live, I would always check the opening credits to see if Don Novello or Andy Kaufman would be on that night, my two favorite comedians, both writers of completely original, completely crazy bits.

The Lazlo Letters (TLL) shows Novello as a writer who, like Kaufman, totally commits to his comic premise. In this case, the premise took twenty years of letter writing to make happen. This book is truly great American satire, busting the pretensions of corporations and celebrity icons in a truly original way.

The fact that Novello's original concept is hilarious is proven by the reams of pissant imitators who ripped him off

Well, Novello has written a funny sequel CITIZEN LAZLO, which I'd also recommend.

The hell with 'em, Lazlo! Fight! fight! fight!