A hoot and a half for fans of sometimes-hapless wandering.
The genially sardonic actor and comedian recounts occasionally misbegotten, always laugh-inducing travels.
Offerman opens his latest book, at times reminiscent of the work of British traveler Redmond O’Hanlon, with a gimlet eye on billboards that proclaim the planks of fundamentalist Christianity. “I don’t feel the need,” he writes, “to erect a sign in my yard proclaiming ‘BEEF TALLOW IS THE FUCKING BOSS.’ ” Offerman entertainingly chronicles his travels in the Montana Rockies with two perhaps unlikely companions, novelist George Saunders and musician Jeff Tweedy. Well-known as a fine woodworker, Offerman contrasts his love of fancy gear, a love shared by Tweedy, with Saunders’ asceticism: “It was his water bottle that made me realize how his whole gear vibe was screaming ‘unassuming pragmatism.’ ” Saunders got in a little less trouble than the other two as they hiked along the sheer cliffs of Glacier National Park, a place that prompts the author to meditate on the history and fate of public lands: “We three middle-aged white guys, ever aware of our privilege, had taken pretty full advantage of the recreation available in the glorious acreage that some other white guys had set aside for just that purpose.” After a side journey among craftspeople and farmers in the English Midlands, where he gamely tried to build a stone wall in the old way, he took off on a Covid-evading RV road trip with wife and fellow actor Megan Mullally, a journey fraught with encounters with the denizens of the recent film Nomadland. “When it comes to navigating RV parks and their gatekeepers,” he notes, “there is a substantial culture of unwritten laws of the jungle.” Offerman’s forays into social criticism are sometimes sharp but never elitist even as he professes disdain for the Jan. 6 crowd and its “batshit mouthpiece,” the pillow king.
A hoot and a half for fans of sometimes-hapless wandering.Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-101-98469-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
An erudite plea to not give up on truth.
A film director addresses the assault on truth.
“All my life, my work has been involved with the central issue of truth,” Herzog writes in this brief collection of essays. Like many others, he is worried about the ease with which people can be deceived into accepting falsehoods as reality, such as the seemingly real online chat between him and a Slovenian philosopher “in which our voices are mocked up very accurately, but our conversation is meaningless twaddle.” That some of these threats have their positive side, Herzog writes, makes the problem even more vexing. AI, he notes, can help with “improvements in the design of vaccines,” but it also presents “the possibility of comprehensive, mass supervision, of disinformation, of manipulation on a vast scale.” In these impassioned pieces, he offers his insights into the threats to the concept of truth. Fake news, he points out, is nothing new. One can trace the phenomenon back as far as 1275 B.C.E. and the falsehood that, at the battle of Kadesh, Ramses II was a great conqueror, when in fact “Ramses was not triumphant, [and] the battle was inconclusive at best.” Herzog presents many examples of delusion, including the flat earth theory, the “technical possibilities of producing fictive ‘truths’” with Photoshop and TikTok, deepfake porn on the internet, and more. He is especially animated over “the foolish belief that equates truth with facts,” reserving particular scorn for cinema verité, “an antiquated form of cinema that offers no profound insights.” Little is original here, but Herzog is an engaging ally, and he isn’t above cheekily harmless deceptions of his own. When he was in Panama and dressed in missionary garb for his role in Harmony Korine’s film Mr. Lonely, a local approached him and wanted to confess. Herzog listened to the man’s confession and “granted him absolution in Latin.”
An erudite plea to not give up on truth.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9780593833674
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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