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- ISBN13: 9780385525244
- Condition: New
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Product Description
The inimitably witty David Rakoff, New York Times bestselling author of Don’t Get Too Comfortable, defends the commonsensical notion that you should always assume the worst, because you’ll never be disappointed.In this deeply funny (and, no kidding, wise and poignant) book, Rakoff examines the realities of our sunny, gosh everyone-can-be-a-star contemporary culture and finds that, pretty much as a universal rule, the best is not yet to come, adversity will triumph, justice will not be served, and your dreams won’t come true.
The book ranges from the personal to the universal, combining stories from Rakoff’s reporting and accounts of his own experiences: the moment when being a tiny child no longer meant adults found him charming but instead meant other children found him a fun target; the perfect late evening in Manhattan when he was young and the city seemed to brim with such possibility that the street shimmered in the moonlight—as he drew closer he realized the streets actually flickered with rats in a feeding frenzy. He also weaves in his usual brand Oscar Wilde–worthy cultural criticism (the tragedy of Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, for instance).
Whether he’s lacerating the musical Rent for its cutesy depiction of AIDS or dealing with personal tragedy, his sharp observations and humorist’s flair for the absurd will have you positively reveling in the power of negativity.
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Customer Reviews
2010-10-14
By Silea (Portland, OR)
The cover material of this volume suggests that it's some sort of intellectual investigation into pessimism, with the result that it's a more practical approach to life than optimism. The first essay will keep leading you down that path as well, with the story of the author's almost-article on a book about the possible benefits of pessimism.
From there, though, it's a series of unconnected autobiographical essays about life, the universe, and everything. The author is clearly a pessimist and a cynic, and it shines through in his writing, but that's the length this collection goes to in the direct discussion of pessimism. There's no defense of it as an approach to life, nor even any pretense of it.
The essays themselves range from mediocre to fairly amusing (if you're a pessimistic cynic too), though they're often weighed down by the author's clear infatuation with his own wordcraft. If you want to read about Mr. Rakoff saying witty things, eating pork, and mocking many aspects of modern culture, you'll enjoy this book. Just don't be mislead by the odd pretense of it being anything but a collection of essays with no unifying theme.
2010-10-03
By Amos Lassen (Little Rock, Arkansas)
Rakoff, David. "Half Empty", Doubleday, 2010.
You Have to Love Rakoff
Amos Lassen
How often do we read morbid essays that make us feel good?--certainly not often enough. If that is the case with you, rush out and get a copy of "Half Empty" and see that the world is going to hell but you will be laughing on the way there. Rakoff is the naysayer in this collection of sardonic wit and he touches on a variety of topics with really wry wit. The essays are pessimistic and funny at the same time as he breaks down the theory of positive thinking. He analyzes popular culture with a keen eye and brings bad judgment and disaster to us in his satiric way. He strips society bare and we laugh at the skeleton. And what a vocabulary the man has! He can build a story and make us love it which in itself is no small thing.
The book includes from the personal to the universal and gives it to us like a slap across the face. His humor is biting and poignant at the same time. The book is made up of and begins with "The Bleak Shall Inherit," that looks at optimism. "Isn't It Romantic?" is about the Broadway hit "Rent" and is the best written essay in the book as well as the funniest and it is about the death of the show's creator. In "A Capacity for Wonder," the author takes us on a trip to the Disney Innoventions Dream House, Hollywood Boulevard, and Salt Lake City, Utah. "All the Time We Have" and "Another Shoe" both deal with serious topics--one deals with the death of Rakoff's therapist while the other deals with his cancer. "The Satisfying Crunch of Dreams Underfoot," is about Raskoff's shot at being a movie star.
Sure these topics do not look particularly appealing but what makes this book is the way Rakoff writes. He says so much is such a beautiful way that is highly possible to miss things. He also tells us about things we do not know. I love Rakoff's contraryism and this is what makes reading him so much fun.
Because Rakoff's writing style is so dense, many will not like it but for me it is perfect. I have always felt that a writer who makes me think is who I want to read. If there is nothing new to be gleaned from reading then why should we bother? It is not such a terrible thing to have to have to read something more than once? That is what says to me that there is either something profound or ridiculous or both.
As dark as some of the humor is, Rakoff never really turns on his total ability for sarcasm and what is here includes a bit of compassion for the human condition. I found myself wishing and hoping that the world will stay as insane as it already is and that Rakoff will be the one to write about it.
2010-10-01
By J. W. Kennedy (Richmond, VA United States)
This is a collection of essays, none of which are related to each other in any significant way. Topics range from Disneyland to Germany to the publishing business to "adult entertainment" trade shows to cancer survival, all generously interleaved with the author's personal memoirs and confessions. The essays are short; the book is short (225 pages in my copy) which makes for a quick read. Bite-size portions make it handy for reading on the go - or in the bathroom, etc, wherever time is limited and you don't want to get absorbed in a plot or have to remember details.
Like the publisher's blurb says, these essays focus mainly on the negative: low self-esteem, low expectations, worst-case scenarios, fear, humiliation, bad judgment, failure. David Rakoff makes no mystery of the fact that he is gay, Jewish, a worrywart, a phobic, a procrastinator, a nebbish. In spite of his awareness of his own bad judgment, he still chooses to write in the first person & share loads of personal information about himself. At least he's honest.
And that's the appeal of this book. It's honest. No attempt has been made to sugar-coat anything. Instead, here is encouragement to let drop the scales from one's eyes, and see things as they are. Instead of saying "I'm OK, You're OK," David Rakoff encourages us to recognize the truth that probably neither one of us is OK. Everybody can't be a winner. Somebody has to lose - and losing can actually be a valuable experience. There's a sardonic humor in observing the sad, pathetic side of modern life (especially the way Rakoff writes it) and I found myself not only agreeing, but chuckling - even occasionally guffawing - many times as I read this brief little book. It's extremely rare for me to laugh out loud at something I read.
2010-09-29
By M. Niesen (North Georgia Mts)
Listen. This isn't an easy read, a beach read or necessarily a page turner for the average bear. BUT it's really great. I laughed so hard in a few bits at such brilliant twists of phrase that I had to put the book down and collect myself. If you like the dry and the sardonic this is for you.
I love David Rakoff's work and have had this book preordered for a long time. I have both Fraud and Don't Get Too Comfortable as audio books and in print and have been jittery with anticipation for something else from the essayist. It's dark, sure. But I think that bodes well for the times. If you haven't noticed the ridiculous at every corner, take a ride with a practiced eye for picking up on details that the average miss.
There are no "good" chapters and "bad" as some folk have posted here. Some will appeal and some will appeal more. This is not formulaic writing and as such you may get tongue tied in a couple ramblers. And he's no simpleton with the word crafting. But grab a dictionary and enjoy. In a society filled with LOL and OMG, I find Rakoff's high minded humor at the absurd to be refreshing.
2010-09-23
By M. E. Llorens (Miami FL)
My first acquaintance with Rakoff's work was hearing him on "This American Life" recite a hilarious take on William Carlos Williams's "This is Just to Say" in his Bond-villain voice. I thought it was delightful and brilliant, but failed to read any further until this book came along. "Half Empty" gives you the opportunity to tag along and listen to this master pessimist as he winds his way through post-lapsarian America. During the brief hours you spend with this book, Rakoff, alternatively fascinated and appalled, trains his relentless sarcastic searchlight on subjects as diverse as American optimism, the difficulties of writing and cancer, and also visits Southern California, Utah and Walt Disney World's Innoventions Dream Home.
If the book tends towards the darker tonalities of the spectrum, you somehow feel that Rakoff never really turns on the full power of his sarcasm, which is tempered throughout by a compassion for the shared human condition. There is, for one thing, the self-deprecation that includes this description of himself as "possessed of a certain verbal acuity coupled with a relentless, hair-trigger humor and surface cheer spackling over a chronic melancholia and loneliness," which serves as a pretty accurate approximation of the experience of reading his work. There is also the knowledge of our own mortality and the suspicion that perhaps others have to be perpetual optimists for the temperamentally pessimistic to enjoy certain human achievements: "If one's dreams having to come true was the only referendum on whether they were beautiful, or worth dreaming, well then, no one would wish for anything. And that would be so much sadder." While you may deplore the same things he deplores, you end up hoping the world remains as crazy and nonsensical as it is so that the author can continue to reverse-engineer his delectable writing.
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