Review: The Game
I reviewed Neil Strauss’ bestseller The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists for PopMatters. This book is a real blast. I’ve gotten nine people, both men and women, to buy it and they all love it. You can read this text as a how-to book, a memoir, a cautionary tale, or an entertaining…
continue readingOld School Water Torture… Just… Make… It… Stop
I really wanted to like this book. The author has great credentials, the subject matter is of particular interest to writers, and the reference materials are impeccable. But reading this thing was like the old spy movies where our hero is subjected to the drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip……
continue readingMcInerney Reviews Kunkel
Jay McInerney provides an interesting review of Indecision by Benjamin Kunkel in Sunday’s New York Times. In a quick wrap-up, McInerney describes the recent history of coming-of-age novels by writing, “In its modern form the American bildungsroman (the novel of formation) descends from The Catcher in the Rye‘ (1951). Reinvigorated by feminism in the 70’s,…
continue readingDefending Bret
Meghan O’Rourke writes for Slate that “I really like Lunar Park, the tricky new novel by Bret Easton Ellis. In this I seem to be nearly alone.” You’re not alone, Meghan, I thought there was a lot of good stuff there as well. But be sure to read Meghan’s defense of Ellis. She makes a…
continue readingJohn T. Edge Reviewed in The Times
Also in The New York Times is a review of Hamburger & Fries: An American Story by John T. Edge. Third in a series of books on American food traditions, this book focuses on the multitude of ways of preparing a hamburger throughout this land of ours. Edge is a food expert who writes for…
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