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A review by adamrbrooks
Reborn in the USA: An Englishman's Love Letter to His Chosen Home by Roger Bennett
5.0
Roger and I have been friends for several years. At least, that's how it feels after listening to him (and Davo) talk about soccer on "Men in Blazers" for hundreds and hundreds of hours.
So, I somewhat thought I knew what this memoir was about.
But just as, "Love you, Davo / Love you, Roger," is always the best part of every podcast, the book has so much more warmth and depth than I expected. It covers Ranch's time growing up in Liverpool -- in all its brutality, which he's only ever joked about on the show -- but not his adulthood in the US. It surprised me, but gave so much more insight into how bad England was in the 1980s, and why the trifles of US pop culture represented hope for him
(Also: Learned more about his penis -- and others penises -- than I might have expected.)
I expected the insights. I expected the laughs. I didn't expect as many gut-punch moments, including his vivid description of becoming a citizen. We're so lucky to have Rog as one of us.
Especially because he ALSO sees our flaws, and the places we can get better as a nation and as a people. His reaction to people thanking him for "taking the legal pathway" to becoming a citizen: "This assumption was made because I am white, funny and on television, and ignored a truth that I had first arrived here on a three-month tourist visa and simply never left."
SOME GOOD LINES
"I know some of this will sound trite. A love of a nation based on the largely fictional stories, images, and myths it peddles about itself." (So important as we re-examine what we tell ourselves about ourselves."
"At a time when the world cries out for the kind of global leadership that once enchanted me, America's soft power has imploded."
"I realized I was about 90% composed of inhibitions, that without them I would be nothing."
"English cars came in black, brown and dull. American wheels were fiery red, brazen blue, shimmery lime. This magical land I had coveted from afar was becoming more real with every passing mile."
"Britain was the darkness. I had found the light."
"Why fight when there were so many better things to do?"
"Liverpool had not tamed the Beasties. We had merely brought them down to our level of hopelessness." (This is especially interesting when you know how Mike D and AdRock feel about this stage of their career.)
"Two thousand people had paid for tickets to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience, only to realize they would gain more pleasure from destroying it."
So, I somewhat thought I knew what this memoir was about.
But just as, "Love you, Davo / Love you, Roger," is always the best part of every podcast, the book has so much more warmth and depth than I expected. It covers Ranch's time growing up in Liverpool -- in all its brutality, which he's only ever joked about on the show -- but not his adulthood in the US. It surprised me, but gave so much more insight into how bad England was in the 1980s, and why the trifles of US pop culture represented hope for him
(Also: Learned more about his penis -- and others penises -- than I might have expected.)
I expected the insights. I expected the laughs. I didn't expect as many gut-punch moments, including his vivid description of becoming a citizen. We're so lucky to have Rog as one of us.
Especially because he ALSO sees our flaws, and the places we can get better as a nation and as a people. His reaction to people thanking him for "taking the legal pathway" to becoming a citizen: "This assumption was made because I am white, funny and on television, and ignored a truth that I had first arrived here on a three-month tourist visa and simply never left."
SOME GOOD LINES
"I know some of this will sound trite. A love of a nation based on the largely fictional stories, images, and myths it peddles about itself." (So important as we re-examine what we tell ourselves about ourselves."
"At a time when the world cries out for the kind of global leadership that once enchanted me, America's soft power has imploded."
"I realized I was about 90% composed of inhibitions, that without them I would be nothing."
"English cars came in black, brown and dull. American wheels were fiery red, brazen blue, shimmery lime. This magical land I had coveted from afar was becoming more real with every passing mile."
"Britain was the darkness. I had found the light."
"Why fight when there were so many better things to do?"
"Liverpool had not tamed the Beasties. We had merely brought them down to our level of hopelessness." (This is especially interesting when you know how Mike D and AdRock feel about this stage of their career.)
"Two thousand people had paid for tickets to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience, only to realize they would gain more pleasure from destroying it."