The Winner of the Slow Bicycle Race

The Winner of the Slow Bicycle Race collects both Krassner’s later stories, as well as his most famous satirical pieces from past years. Swiftian in intention and contemporary in subject matter, the book reveals Krassner to have the heart of a muckraker and the spirituality of a seeker after truth. In Krassner’s world, Lyndon Johnson chuckles over the dead corpse of J.F.K., a psychiatrist hypnotically regresses a woman who shot her television set, and Nancy Reagan’s “Just say no to drugs” becomes “If anybody tries to sell you an ounce of marijuana for $500, that’s way too expensive, so just say no.” Kneading fantasy into reality, Krassner ferrets out the higher truths that spotlight the absurdity all around.