Parker is articulate and provocative, seeing the poetry in the ordinary and the wonderful in the world.
A collection of short pieces encompassing the whimsical, the meditative, and the tragicomic.
Is the world a big place full of small things, or a small place stuffed with big things? Parker, a staff writer for the Atlantic and author of a biography of Henry Rollins, would probably say it is both, judging from this compilation of his essays and poems. His subjects veer from the philosophical to the very strange, from quantum physics to “the psychedelic locusts that run the universe.” The author explains why Jason Bourne ("poor human suffering the essential questions") is better than James Bond and discusses which movie star has the best running style—he settles on Tom Cruise, who runs "with the face of an angry Christ.” Parker is not shy about getting personal. He might be the only person to have written a poem about constipation, which includes a cat. He admits to a misspent youth, with too many party drugs and too much literature. However, both gave him odd insights into the way the world works. Is it possible that the hum of a refrigerator, heard in the insomniac hours, is really the hidden song of the eternal? What do hypervigilant squirrels know that we don’t? Parker’s writing is carefully polished, with the humor often hiding dark undertones, which in turn obscure deeper absurdities. (Consider a mixture of Cormac McCarthy’s shade and Steve Martin’s offbeat comedic spirit.) It all makes for enjoyable reading that can be consumed at once or piecemeal; many of Parker’s essays deserve serious contemplation. Among numerous other topics, he pens odes to the “Farting Horse,” “Crying Babies,” “Bad Reviews,” “My Dog’s Balls,” “Being Dead,” and “Wanting to Be a Great Poet.”
Parker is articulate and provocative, seeing the poetry in the ordinary and the wonderful in the world.Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9781324091639
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
A frank, fierce, and heartfelt memoir.
In her long-awaited second book, the award-winning comedian chronicles the personal challenges that have made her “more alive, more human, and…more interesting.”
As Haddish, author of The Last Black Unicorn, recounts, her Eritrean-born father left the family when she was 4. Several years later, her mother, diagnosed with head injury–induced schizophrenia, began beating her out of frustration. In foster care by age 13, Haddish eventually became the “cute homeless” girl who lived in her car. Yet she still managed to find unexpected (and sometimes wildly surreal) comedy in almost everything. For example, she recalls how her Jehovah’s Witness mother would tell stories about “enzymes” boys carried that would “eat your face up” after kissing, which Haddish innocently repeated to more sex-savvy friends. When her father suddenly reappeared in her life, the author remembers how she celebrated their tender moment of telephone reconnection by crying into “some marijuana plants I had growing on my kitchen windowsill.” A recurring topic throughout the book is sexuality, which Haddish discusses in refreshingly unfettered ways. When, for example, she started taking Paxil (an antidepressant) in her 20s, she experienced severe vaginal chafing. With the trademark outrageousness that met with rejection from establishment comedy shows like Saturday Night Live, she remarks, “Do you know how hard it is to walk fast when your coochie is dry?” Nothing is sacred nor forbidden as she jokes about the joys of “riding that D” with fat men and her grandmother’s advice to keep a man: “You gonna have to kiss that banana every day.” Featuring liberal use of slang and profanity, Haddish's book showcases not only her ability transform the “shit” of tragedy into the “fertilizer” that “makes you grow,” but also her relentless, utterly courageous pursuit of joy.
A frank, fierce, and heartfelt memoir.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781635769531
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Diversion Books
Review Posted Online: today
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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