Book of Bad Virtues (Tony Hendra) - Pocket Books - 1994

This book by National Lampoon's Tony Hendra is 58 short-short stories that champion immortality with very dark versions of familiar parables.  The book displays Hendra's excellent writing skills, but challenges even the most ardent optimist to not be depressed by the persistently negative stories.  Hendra is especially brutal to the creatures of the Magic Kingdom with "Rabbit Reflux" in Egotism and with the introduction to Blasphemy.  Bad Virtues continues the National Lampoon tradition of humor wherein "nothing is sacred" and, he borrows two of his contributions ("Deteriorata" and "The Hamilton Philadelphia Letter") from the glory days of Lampoon in the 1970s.  The stories are clever but the over-emphasis on the blackest side of life did not encourage me to beg for more. [Jamlog]