Twain - About Barbers

Humorous Stories and Sketches

Mark Twain

1996

Often I find myself gravitating towards surreal, fantastic, science fiction, magical realism or otherworldly fiction. But, I think  I am most impressed with writers who stay in the strict confines of the ordinary and yet retain my interest. With a blisteringly quick pace I often find myself bored with fiction that doesn't transport me to some place or time that isn't logically possible. Mark Twain in general and About Barbers specifically need not take me to a galaxy far, far away to retain my attention. He described the barber shop where the narrator panicked over being taken into the worst chair and I got it. He described the barbershop I went to in High School. Though separated by 125 years between when the story was published and when I was frequenting the small town barbershop of my youth, Twain's opening still rings true: "All things change except barbers, the ways of barbers, and the surroundings of barbers. These never change (Twain, 13).

"He was decaying inwardly while still alive, and this gave me much concern" (Twain, 15). That's funny.

The other two parts I found especially humorous were the way the barber dried the mans face off (un-Christian like) and the barber's attempts to sell the man some products he didn't need. Barbers never change.