Rakoff is a regular contributor to This American Life. This 2005 book of personal essays has some great funny parts and a snarky sensibility, but was immediately shadowed in my mind by his next book, Half-Empty (2010), which is leaps and bounds greater in writing ability. Still, a quick and entertaining read.

An example from a passage where he describes the experience of meeting a snotty designer while reporting at a fashion show:

"All of the designers I have met up to this point have been very nice, although upon being introduced to Karl Lagerfeld, he looks me up and down and dismisses me with the not super-kind, 'What can you write that hasn't been written already?'

"He's absolutely right, I have no idea. I can but try. The only thing I can come up with at that moment is that Lagerfeld's powdered white ponytail has dusted the shoulders of his suit with what looks like dandruff but isn't. Also, not yet having undergone his alarming weight loss, and seated on a tiny velvet chair, with his large doughy rump dominating the miniature piece of furniture like a loose, flabby, ass-flavored muffin overrisen from its pan, he resembles a Daumier caricature of some corpulent, inhumane oligarch drawn sitting on a commode, stuffing his greedy throat with the corpses of dead children, while from his other end he shits out huge, malodorous piles of tainted money. How's that for new and groundbreaking, Mr. L?"

i am never comfortable

Rakoff made numerous references to movies, people and pop-culture that I was not familiar with so overall I got a sense that his writings were a bit beyond my scope. I couldn't fully grasp his humor or the point he was trying to make without understanding the comparisons. If I were more knowledgeable about his references I think I would have enjoyed the read more. I did appreciate the large statements he made in the last few lines of each short story. In a small number of words he articulated and questioned some big, common themes in culture and humanity.

This book is a collection of nonfiction essays about the American culture of excess. Rakoff turns his attention to the obscene extravaganza that defines the lives of many here and now. From Hooters Air to beachside luxury resorts, Rakoff roasts the completely unnecessary things we do while we pretend they are totally normal. His time spent with his own manservant during a softcore shoot on a private island in Belize boggled my mind. "Is this real?" I asked myself. Rakoff stumbles most charmingly through NY with the Wildman urban forager - I liked the Wildman. I was rooting for him. I delighted in Rakoff's visit to Martha's craft room. The cryogenics people freaked me out, but they always do. Not as badly as the Log Cabin Republicans, however. I can't stop thinking about those wild and crazy Log Cabin Republicans, and Rakoff breathlessly protesting, "But I can change him!" That moment was just one of the many reasons I was glad I listened to the audiobook. Rakoff's delivery is priceless.

This is not an intensely profound or insightful book, but it is smart enough and funny. And this book is *not* "just like David Sedaris," which I was told plenty of times before I read it. I've read enough Augusten Burroughs thankyouvermuch. BUT David Rakoff's not like that. He's like the guy that Sarah Vowell would want to offer her services as a devoted fag hag. If David Rakoff were a martini, the vermouth would be John Waters. The vodka would be top shelf. By putting Sedaris out of my mind, I was able to appreciate Rakoff to a greater degree.

There is no overt political agenda here, but as our opulence becomes more alarming and we see more trends toward simplicity, this book sits in an interesting position - written right before tiny houses and front yard food gardens became bigger each year, right after the "Shop, America, Shop!" rallying cries post-911, and situated in a moment in history where almost everything about our lives is disturbingly decadent to the point of embarrassment. Reading this exacerbated my feeling of living at right before the beginning of the collapse of the Roman empire. I live here, and you live here. This book is relevant and funny.

I listened to these, but they are probably better read. Some were wonderful and some so-so, but some of that is the performance of the reader, who is Rakoff himself.
When he is portraying different characters he is amazing, when he is just reading a essay he veers toward monotone.
Some of these essays were hilarious, his participation is a liquid diet fast, for example, was terrific. He is good at joining "movements" and describing them from the inside.
I would recommend reading this, not listening, skipping over what doesn't work for you and enjoying what does.

Part of my disappointment was that this book turned out to be something different than what I expected. I thought it would be a clear discussion on "first world problems" and how those are the types of problems that seem most important to many people in their day to day lives. Instead, this was more like a memoir, patched together of some very different writing assignments the author did as part of other work. Then, he put some of them together in this book and decided it all made sense.

There were a couple small items that amused me. Other than those little bits, the book wasn't worth reading.

I was expecting a laugh a minute, witty read. There is wit, but mainly in the sense that he is being witty while constantly mocking and belittling others. It took til nearly the end of the, granted, short book for there to be POINT (ie: The mocking of gay Republican party members, I get that one!) but it overall felt kind of bitchy and a look into the life of a whiny, privileged white guy who doesn't have anything nice to say.

Blech. Pass. OK, if you really want to know what the book was all about I will tell you. Oh, wait, no I won't because I HAVE NO IDEA. The author is a pompous nitwit who discusses quite possibly the stupidest topics ever ... all the while pretending to be interesting. Do yourself a favor and stay far far away from this one. The title should have been a hint - the entire process of reading this one was uncomfortable.

The title drew me in, and after the 1st few pages I knew I had been suckered. It was too late though, I was committed. The title is the best title ever ... but alas the book is not a commentary on all the useless frivolities enjoyed by some, but a sort of memoir of the author's experiences with extreme comforts and meaningless (to some) practices. The book was not what I expected, and I wasn't thrilled with what it turned out to be.

These essays are a hilarious set of observations about the US and American life, circa 2003. Those were my formative years. I would have been 17 years old and I remember a lot of what the author writes about like it was yesterday. The book starts out with an essay about choosing to become a naturalized US citizen due to 9/11 and the fear of being deported (the author is Canadian) but it's not negative at all. In fact, I laughed through most of it and read some of the best parts out loud to my partner. The author is a left-leaning gay man and unapologetic about his views, and I think that's where a lot of the more critical reviews come from. I'm generally in agreement with him on the issues he discusses, so it made it easier for me to sit back and enjoy the humor.

Borrowed this from a co-worker after we were talking about enjoying David Sedaris essays in high school but not being sure how well they would hold up if we read him today. Despite this collection being from 2005, a lot of the knocks at American narcissism were still pretty on point. A few of the essays dragged a bit for me, but I did thoroughly enjoy the essay about him getting American citizenship and the one about the fast that he did. He has a lot of the humor that I appreciated about Sedaris, but a bit less of the punching down.

Most of these essays are pure gold. He’s got a knack for hilarious analogies, and he’s a wonderful guide on these wacky, sometimes exotic journeys - going places we can't (the Concord, Belize private island, behind the scenes at a cryogenic freezing lab) and telling us about it.

I loved his story about Log Cabin Republicans. For all his hilarious digs at them -- picturing them as the modern day equivalent of the racists unscrewing the water hose for Bull Connor -- I really sympathized with them. Party polarization is bad for democracy and any issues we can make bipartisan, we should try.

The worst was the Alcor story - disturbing and yet dull too. In this story, he says we should "sign off with pleasure." But can a person really do that? Can we welcome death with open arms? Seems far-fetched - like Joan Fontaine letting Cary Grant kill her in Suspicion.