First off, I really like the cynical (in all senses) and pessimistic (in most senses) point of view that Rakoff brings to most subjects. I enjoyed Don't Get Too Comfortable quite a bit.

So, having presented my credentials :), I must say that this collection was definitely weaker. The essays seemed to all follow a similar pattern of "90 degree turns": he will jump setting/subject/anecdote abruptly, half way through (and perhaps more than once) before bringing things to a close. And he does wrap things up rather than just leave you hanging; he is a skilled writer. As a device here or there such jumps are acceptable, even adding style; as a stylistic tick or habit, however, it gets a bit annoying.

The final essay is not at all pessimistic; it is real, raw even, and 'touching' (a word I don't think I've ever actually used before.) That essay, and my overall like for his conversational style, gives this collection three stars rather than two. ( )

There's something about essays that just doesn't touch me. At the end of reading this book, I could remember being engaged by certain moments but there was no great overall emotional or intellectual effect. I think I am naturally suspicious of ideas. I'm aware of how easily they can be proposed and justified. Clever ideas are more fun, but they're no more likely to be true than ungainly or ugly ones. That's why I love [b:Hopeful Monsters|151458|Hopeful Monsters|Nicholas Mosley|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347727695s/151458.jpg|146182] by [a:Nicholas Mosley|85345|Nicholas Mosley|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1309727858p2/85345.jpg], because he's one of the few authors who seems to understand that the most interesting thing to do with literature is to model how we might think, rather than what we might think about. My favourite novels don't have great ideas, they allow characters/narrators/readers to engage with ideas (or emotions, maybe) in new ways.

So this is as good as any book of essays, I suspect, if your sympathetic to the Rakoff's ideas, but it's a bit too light on for me. ( )

Should have been titled "Not Funny", or "I'm Trying REALLY HARD To Be Fran Leibowitz And Failing Miserably". Simply awful.

I think I started this a year ago? But I did enjoy each essay, individually. ( )

Ditto for what I said about the other book "Don't Get Too Comfortable...." but it kept spiraling down with the pessimism, which I am all fine with and then to get slapped with the "I got cancer" part was weird. It wound up being an almost uplifting end in an odd sort of way, not a hey I lived- life is great all is wonderful fa la la way - but in a nice realist sense of I like living, I want to live, so going on living is a good thing while I still can keep living on. ( )