Jacobson brims with life in this collection of his most acclaimed columns from the Independent. From the unusual disposal of his father-in-law's ashes and the cultural wasteland of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to the melancholy sensuality of Leonard Cohen and the desolation of Wagner's tragedies, Jacobson writes with all the thunder and joy of a man possessed. Absurdity piles upon absurdity, and glorious sentences accrete to create a uniquely human collection, at times hilarious, at others heartbreaking, and always irresistibly entertaining.