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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
challenging
funny
reflective
Clever, bracing, wildly associative, frequently hilarious, thoughtful without dipping into sentimentality - like a phone call with a beloved and brilliant friend.
I am giving 4 stars to the 40% of this book that I understood! Many references went right over my head, but the chapters that made sense to me were excellent lol.
This is a hard book to review, mostly because it's a hard book to quantify. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but it was hard to read too much of it in one sitting. Lavery careens wildly from silliness to intensely academic analysis, in a way that sort of gives the reader whiplash but also somehow kind of works. His sense of humor is pretty similar to mine, so I got a number of good laughs out of this book. It was very well written, and very well thought out. Lots of the stuff in here I had never really considered before, and I really enjoyed all the allusions to other works, even though some of them went over my head (Lavery and I do not share similar taste in TV and movies, unfortunately). One of the hallmarks for me of Lavery's work is his ability to really hit you with just like one line, which somehow manages to completely gut you and rock your foundations. There's no denying that this was kind of a weird book, and it probably isn't for everyone, but I liked it quite a lot.
I didn't always understand the references but I laughed, cried, and enjoyed every minute of this!
Uneven and disorganized collection of essays some more personal some completely abstracted all weaving in pop culture, biblical or literary references. I most enjoyed the moments when Daniel speaks most directly of transition and his feelings about it and his experience of it. I did use to love the Toast but I realize the beauty there was you could select what you read and here I was reading cover to cover so I didn't skip the essays that were weaker or who's source material I was less familiar with. I did very much love the Golden Girls essay.
MAN I MISS THE TOAST. I'm glad I read this one slowly so I wasn't exhausted by Danny's pacing or my limited knowledge of Greek & Roman mythology or Evelyn Waugh. To talk about transition in these ways (Athena as tomboy? Grieving a dead name? Jacob as Israel and no long as Jacob?) is so very unique and a fascinating way to process change and overall existence. It was thoughtful and cheeky and the language is that signature mix of arcane insanity and Very Online.
i enjoyed it, overall, but mhmm this felt uneven -- some really good, funny essays, but i didn't care much for the literary canon interludes or the heavy bible stuff but also that's a personal thing because that's just not my frame of reference.
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced