Side Effects (1980)

Side Effects is an anthology of 17 comical short essays written by Woody Allen between 1975 and 1980, all but one of which were previously published in, variously, The New Republic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Kenyon Review. It includes Allen's 1978 O. Henry Award-winning story "The Kugelmass Episode".

Contents

Remembering Needleman

The Condemned

By Destiny Denied

The UFO Menace

My Apology

The Kugelmass Episode

My Speech to the Graduates

The Diet

The Lunatic's Tale

Reminiscences: Places and People

Nefarious Times We Live In

A Giant Step for Mankind

The Shallowest Man

The Query

Fabrizio's: Criticism and Response

Retribution

Confessions of a Burglar

Some of the tales in detail

"Remembering Needleman" is a one-liner- and non-sequitur-filled obituary for Professor Sandor Needleman.

"By Destiny Denied" presents the reader with notes for a fictional "eight-hundred-page novel—the big book they're all waiting for."

"My Apology" is Allen's tale of a recurring fantasy/dream of his where he imagines himself in the sandals of Socrates during the philosopher's final days in prison.

"The Kugelmass Episode" is about a CCNY professor, Sidney Kugelmass, who, thanks to the powers of an obscure magician, is projected into Madame Bovary to carry on an affair beyond the scrutiny of his overbearing wife.

"My Speech to the Graduates" is a parody of platitude-laden commencement speeches.

"Nefarious Times We Live In" concerns the events that lead its protagonist, Willard Pogrebin, to fire a Luger at President Gerald Ford. They involve at least five kinds of drugs and three cults.

Running jokes

Throughout the book, frequent references are made to composer Igor Stravinsky. In addition, numerous gags are made with an implication that people bear an innate knowledge of Dutch. Characters' love interests are compared to a grotesque, golem-like Aunt Rifka in two separate stories.