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3.37 AVERAGE
3.37 AVERAGE
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Funny, but not that exciting. I’m guess everyone can write a memoir, no matter what their life experiences…
funny
hopeful
reflective
what does the title of this book have to do with the book? the parenthesis were better than the entire book, TBQH
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
funny
fast-paced
This is a deceptively short and simple collection of essays. I needed to read it because Gary Janetti's instagram is just...amazing. It's snarky and hilarious, and I love it so much. And, he's married to Brad Goreski. So obviously I needed to see what was up.
Janetti's trademark humor is certainly here. His humor is sarcastic and wry, which is often my favorite kind. The kind that's subtle enough that you could easily miss something hilarious if you're not paying attention.
I couldn't help, at one point, comparing him to David Sedaris. The comparison isn't exactly right, but I do think there are hints of Sedaris here. I do think Janetti tended to focus inward a bit more, perhaps? There are certainly outside observations, but the primary focus of these essays is on Janetti himself, and some of the landmark moments of his own life.
It's interesting because I went into this for the humor, and there's a ton of it, oozing from each essay. But, there are some some really raw moments and emotions behind that humor, which I think compounds the more you read. The themes begin to show, the way the stories connect. Janetti jumps around a bit in time period - shifting from him in grade school to him just after college, bach to high school, etc. But by the end, these are all pieces of a puzzle that seem to fit together just right. Earlier moments and stories become more clear or meaningful as you continue to read, and jump back to an earlier time period again.
The more you get to know Janetti - especially the Janetti in these pages, the one that was searching and growing and desperately looking for his place - the more meaningful stories about going to great lengths to play sick in grade school become. Life is hard, and Janetti doesn't exactly shy away from addressing how hard it can be, especially for a gay man coming of age in the 80s, but he does mask some of that hardship behind humor, and cuts the sharpness of the pain behind these stories in the way he tells them and very carefully orders them.
I really loved his final essay in particular - because it really brought everything up to that point together. Him, in this gay club, realizing that his younger years are behind him. There is so much present in that essay, including this subtle but incredibly powerful acknowledgement of the AIDS crisis in the 80s, something he was on the periphery of without probably totally realizing it at the time. There is this sense of an immense sadness as well as a crisis averted.
I just really enjoyed this book. It gave me a newfound respect for Janetti, and further appreciation for his talent with storytelling, the subtlety and power of his skill.
Janetti's trademark humor is certainly here. His humor is sarcastic and wry, which is often my favorite kind. The kind that's subtle enough that you could easily miss something hilarious if you're not paying attention.
I couldn't help, at one point, comparing him to David Sedaris. The comparison isn't exactly right, but I do think there are hints of Sedaris here. I do think Janetti tended to focus inward a bit more, perhaps? There are certainly outside observations, but the primary focus of these essays is on Janetti himself, and some of the landmark moments of his own life.
It's interesting because I went into this for the humor, and there's a ton of it, oozing from each essay. But, there are some some really raw moments and emotions behind that humor, which I think compounds the more you read. The themes begin to show, the way the stories connect. Janetti jumps around a bit in time period - shifting from him in grade school to him just after college, bach to high school, etc. But by the end, these are all pieces of a puzzle that seem to fit together just right. Earlier moments and stories become more clear or meaningful as you continue to read, and jump back to an earlier time period again.
The more you get to know Janetti - especially the Janetti in these pages, the one that was searching and growing and desperately looking for his place - the more meaningful stories about going to great lengths to play sick in grade school become. Life is hard, and Janetti doesn't exactly shy away from addressing how hard it can be, especially for a gay man coming of age in the 80s, but he does mask some of that hardship behind humor, and cuts the sharpness of the pain behind these stories in the way he tells them and very carefully orders them.
I really loved his final essay in particular - because it really brought everything up to that point together. Him, in this gay club, realizing that his younger years are behind him. There is so much present in that essay, including this subtle but incredibly powerful acknowledgement of the AIDS crisis in the 80s, something he was on the periphery of without probably totally realizing it at the time. There is this sense of an immense sadness as well as a crisis averted.
I just really enjoyed this book. It gave me a newfound respect for Janetti, and further appreciation for his talent with storytelling, the subtlety and power of his skill.
Look I’m currently updating all my ratings and reviews cause I use to be way to nice on books even if I didn’t like it all that much. This just annoyed me the whole time.
Nice, goofy, bingeable book. Perfect for airplanes. I read it over the course of one flight.