Small Comforts: More Comments and Comic Pieces

A writer for the Anchorage Daily News and a commentator on Alaska and National Public Radio, Bodett has two styles. He is a would-be humorist who evidently sees himself as a sort of sub-Arctic Andy Rooney, offering remarks on such topics as the perversity of mechanical devices, signs that order rational human beings not to do things they wouldn't think of doing and orphaned shopping carts that appear virtually anywhere. In these pieces, he is not especially original and only occasionally draws a chuckle of recognition. Then there is the sentimental observer of people and places. Bodett is genuinely touching when he describes his infant son and the joys of being a father, a boy waiting for his first school bus ride and the beauties of Alaska. (October 6)