Book Review: Zero Gravity

Downloaded from my Kindle for $19. Now I have read everything Woody Allen has written. This collection of short pieces is as slight as his previous one, Mere Anarchy. All are amusing and raised a mild smile from me. When Your Hood Ornamant Is Nietzsche was probably my favorite. A self-driving, intelligent car poses philosophical questions of morality as it contemplates if it should run over a pedestrian or save its driver. The final piece, Growing Up in Manhattan is an actual short story, close to a novella, but ultimately unsatisfying. It follows an autobiographical Allen-like hero, as he experiences a Brooklyn childhood, a rocky first marriage, finding work as a TV writer and playwright, and a taking up with a frighteningly self-possessed new love as his first union dissolves. It's well-written and the only piece with a plot and characters beyond cartoons. But there's little or no point to the story, other than a charming portrayal of 1960s NYC. It ends rather abruptly with the hero breaking it off with his new girl. Why is Allen telling this story other than to reminisce about his youth?