2005 Author Reviews for
Theresa Green

As much of a fan as I am of both Tolkien and Longfellow, they can both be a bit overly dramatic at times. Fortunately, there are people like Theresa Green, who does a fantastic job of combining Tolkien's characters with Longfellow's poetic style and then goes about sabotaging the whole thing. Well, perhaps "sabotage" is too strong a word, but the parody is a thing of brilliance. Theresa does an amazing job of combining two different worlds. She picks from Longfellow and Tolkien the things most likely to cause to both fit and cause an uproar in the other, and then she lets them play off each other. The humor comes naturally without ever being forced, and the result is fantastic. Great writing from Theresa, and good choice in subject.

Theresa Green is a humorist who has a gift for catching lightning in bottles multiple times, as evidenced by her series "[Character]: The Owner's Guide and Manual". She knows how to work a format and make the humor feel fresh each time, even though the structure and even content (in terms of kinds of gags) is essentially the same each time. She has that gift for finding the skewed perspective that makes the ridiculous stand out, and do so in a manner appropriate to a character. But beyond that, she does it in such a way that you find yourself thinking that no one else would've seen the comic potential of, for example, Frodo's nine fingers. Others might fuss about with problems of dexterity or handling spoons; only Theresa Green, I find myself thinking, would notice that he can no longer add properly by counting on his fingers. She's definitely got the eye. In longer pieces, such as "Advice" and its sequel, and "The Gift", she shows that she is the master of the convenient omission, demonstrating a firm grasp of the principle: "Less is more". It'd be less funny if we knew *everything* that Legolas and Gimli were talking about; it's the allusion and the reader's imagination that make the gags work. Hope to see more from her soon, since we all need a good laugh.

The entire Owner's Guide collection is brilliant and a fantastic idea, but perhaps what really sets it apart is how Theresa makes them all individualized but also ties them all together. Something mentioned in the Gimli guide might come up again in the Legolas guide, but each guide is also unique and contains hilarious jokes specific to the character in question. It's a fantastic combination of coordination and innovation, and a somewhat daunting combination at that. Many kudos to Theresa for being able to manage such a masterpiece.