Author: Phil TorciviaGenre: Non-fiction
Price: $10.64, $2.99 (ebook)
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 978-1450557924
Point of Sale: Amazon
Reviewer: VeingloryRating: 5/10
This is a book loosely described as being stories about dating ("Product Description: Dating is a humorous struggle for a recently divorced man who has no clue what women want"). Which it isn't. Some-one the author is dating is first mentioned on page 83, and actual dating advice (FWIW) first arrives on page 105. What this is is a collection of short essays and anecdotes, apparently from the point of view of a bartender, on topics such as Facebook, lousy tippers, drinks, farts and cougars. One dialogue between a man and his penis might be mildly amusing, three was pushing it.
To be fair I could read this book from beginning to end without pain. It has nice illustrations. It is reasonably cleanly written (although my version scrambled all of the accent marks and some of the punctuation). Yes the writing is "honest", but that doesn't automatically make it good (The same could, of course, be said about this review). My personal feeling (and many comments on Amazon disagree) is that the author is only about half as funny as he thinks he is, and while he repeatedly says people (especially women) show be nice and not whine about things--the book is essentially an extended and rather catty vent about 100 different things that apparently get up the author's nose. There are episodes of real humor and charm, but also moments of hypocrisy, bitterness, mild but ubiquitous misogyny and some other very dodgy moments.
It is entirely possible that this book is far more funny if you possess testicles, but I wasn't willing to acquire a pair just to find out.
1 comment:
It is entirely possible that this book is far more funny if you possess testicles, but I wasn't willing to acquire a pair just to find out.
I just had to chuckle at that closing line!
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