This book is a gas-a carbonated novel whose bubbly mirth and flagrant lunacies mask a deeper aim. Will Sylvan Woods, it asks, ever manage to shed his callow cynicism and become a fully realized innocent? He is, to be sure, the least likely of heroes, and the road before him is murky and perilous. Demons await him at every turn. He will be tempted by money, fame, common sense, even by truth. Will he transcend them? You'll have to read Mad Shoes to learn the answer. You'll be laughing at the end of it, and your heart will be as light as a feather.

These utterly fanciful stories make us smile. In so doing, they affirm the resilient magic of the human condition. This new edition of Jim Gold s shorter work includes rare tales of magic and daring-do chronicles of a clever entrepreneur launching a Holy Land tour business during the Crusades, stories of talking vegetables and stories of half-mad dreamers, stories of love and of devotion in a world where Up is often Sideways. If you like reading P.G. Wodehouse and S.J. Perelman, you ll love this book. A tonic for the flagging spirit and a reminder of the joy of living, it will make you an...

It takes courage to turn a new leaf, a passion for self-discovery, and a sense of fun This wise book, filled with surprises, describes a life lived on its own terms. Jim Gold touches our passions, fears, and hopes in ways that reveal us to ourselves with humor and insight. Comfortable in contradiction, its free spirit makes us sing, laugh, dance, and often leap. Jim Gold brings a love of people, music, languages, humor, old cultures, and new discoveries to his life's work. His adventures as author, musician, folk dance teacher, tour leader, and entrepreneur form the basis of this, his fifth...