For all the skewering, this is a well-researched, passionate tribute to books and authors that have left their marks.
A subversive lampoon of the Western literary canon.
Culture writer and creator of the parody Twitter account @guyinyourmfa, Schwartz (Choose Your Own Disaster, 2018, etc.) distills 500 years of literary history through the eyes of a fictional know-it-all. This entertaining guide starts with Shakespeare and winds through Goethe, Tolstoy, Faulkner, and fiction’s heavy hitters, culminating with the Jonathans (Franzen, Safran Foer, and Lethem). Each profile summarizes a particular author’s biographical highlights and major works. Amid factual details, the MFA student inserts revealing asides and footnotes. Off-track forays, from how to roll cigarettes to how to pen dirtier love notes à la Joyce, build a road map for emulating the ultimate writer. Pointed descriptions home in on the features that have stained some of the authors' reputations. Failed marriages, self-absorption, Updike’s infamous Rabbit character, and uglier histories—such as Mailer’s violence—portray a flawed bunch. Comedy writer and cartoonist Katzenstein creates expressive, grayscale headshots with sartorial flair. Ranging from brow-heavy seriousness to closed-mouth smiles, the authors’ faces are humorously annotated. (Of Kafka: “Auteur hair.” Henry James: “Eye bags—genius never sleeps.” Kerouac: “Perfect swoop.”) Each is given a yearbook hall-of-fame title, such as Milton, a “Goody Two-Shoes,” Fitzgerald, who’s crowned “Prom King,” and Vonnegut, “Most Dependable.” Such offhand remarks are clever rather than blistering. Fittingly, the MFA student is blind to his fawning taste. The role demands a misogynist who pretends to be “woke” and who considers New York as the only literary hub worth mentioning. Schwartz's knowingness and thorough commitment are consistently humorous. She writes the MFA guy with sincere, cringing acuity, and the act stays fresh. An affectionate naiveté offsets his ambition, and the literary overview is useful. A reading list rounds out the compendium, a fun read for the aspiring literati.
For all the skewering, this is a well-researched, passionate tribute to books and authors that have left their marks.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-286787-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Perennial/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
Charming but somewhat wearying chronicle of a life well lived.
This collection of autobiographical scenes is equal parts family history, travelogue and romance.
Eric Youngquist brings readers another assorted group of pieces on his family’s life and travels following 2006’s A Simpler Time. The book is divided neatly into two sections: Rita’s writings, assembled by Eric after her death, fill the first and his follow. Rita’s letters, diary entries and photographs suggest a privileged youth and recount her life before Eric. The material offers a unique snapshot of growing up in a bygone era, while passages detailing the couple’s courtship are sweetly nostalgic testaments to the strength of their 45 years together. Readers, however, might find it difficult to push through the non-narrative structure of Rita’s writing, especially overly thorough biographical sketches of her ancestors. The second part of the book is much more accessible, charting the couple’s course through Wisconsin, Norway and upstate New York over several years. Eric came from an immigrant family and was indoctrinated with that most American of ideals–through education one can better their social standing. He was a diligent scholar and his natural drive fueled an ascent in academia and the foreign service, which dictated the family’s travels. Eric’s sentimentality and attention to detail are the bedrock of this book, and they shine through on every page: paternal meditation on his two young sons, fond memories of his oral foreign service exam or fashion observations from the streets of Oslo. His writing is unfailingly sweet-natured and conscientious, but his penchant for all-inclusive details will tire some readers and lose others altogether. While his love for Rita is nothing short of awe-inspiring, this overwhelming devotion often impairs his narrative judgment; he seems blind to the obvious tedium that some of Rita’s missives provoke. But readers who are doubtful that true love exists or that one dedicated man can make a difference will be winningly persuaded by Think Kind Thoughts.
Charming but somewhat wearying chronicle of a life well lived.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0929146065
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Vacation travelogue that, despite its pretension to social commentary, will make readers want to pack their bags.
Quaint traveler’s tale attempting to masquerade as hard-hitting reportage on modern China.
Weiss reunites with his old Army buddy, Hal, to travel to the Far East, finally submitting to decades of haranguing from Hal’s father, the Confucius-styled sage Pop Kam. Weiss chronicles his journey in a diary replete with scenes of the seeming absurdities of this foreign land. In its early stages, the text mostly resembles a blow-by-blow account of the author’s culture shock. But further along, his confusion about things like unrestrained public urination or vendors converting tomatoes into dumplings adds human detail to the narrative without rankling of condescension. Weiss never forgets that he is the outsider, and his humor is always self-deprecating. His account often risks becoming a tiresome itinerary of wondrous sites, reminiscent of a clueless uncle’s overlong slideshow of vacation photos. But enough history is interspersed between the charming yet repetitive descriptions to remind readers of the awe-inspiring marvel of such wonders as the Great Wall or the terra cotta warriors of Xi’an. Weiss writes with a literary flourish that at times makes his adventures sing, but it can just as easily sink to depths of overwhelming melodrama. He provides useful tips for those who might wish to follow in his footsteps: his experience with altitude sickness in Tibet, which showcases Weiss’s humility before nature, alerts others to the need to acclimate before ascending the Himalayas. His two-month trip in spring 2007 took place as China dove headfirst into preparations for the 2008 Summer Olympics, on which Weiss hooks an analysis of the nation’s struggle to modernize. The connection feels awkward and artificial, and the facts he incorporates about Tibet’s cultural suppression, pollution and the one-child policy can be easily gleaned from the Internet.
Vacation travelogue that, despite its pretension to social commentary, will make readers want to pack their bags.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-4363-1523-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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