Saturday 15 May 2010

Book ~ "Everything Is Wrong with Me: A Memoir of an American Childhood Gone, Well, Wrong" (2010) Jason Mulgrew

From Amazon ~ Mulgrew’s loose collection of 1980s and ’90s childhood anecdotes and mining of familial dysfunction (designed to “throw my family under the bus so that I can buy a high-def TV and force them to cut off contact with me for the rest of my life”) clearly subscribes to the Sedaris school of memoir writing. The stories range from his youthful coming to terms with the inadequacy of his penis to an ode to late-night drunken hooker spotting, but the most memorable character turns out to be his hard-drinking, quasi-criminal father. Mostly, though, the book functions as a collection of chapter-length bar yarns—the kind that come out when only the hardiest of livers are left—with little attention paid to continuity or organization and a lot to nailing self-deprecatory zingers, which come in two flavors: booze (too much) and sex (not enough). Mulgrew, a popular blogger, is a tremendously entertaining and affable writer as long as you’re not expecting anything revelatory and don’t mind wallowing with him in his shamelessly, cheerfully puerile tendencies.

Though I'd never heard of Jason, The Girl from the Ghetto had reviewed this book and it sounded like a hoot!

Jason is a blogger who has written his memoir of his childhood. The stories are funny and the language is crass ... it's definitely not for the faint of heart. I enjoyed his sense of humour and wasn't appalled by the language.

My only complaint is that it could have been edited better as there are some typos. He does admit to being lazy (and sounds proud of it) but these were errors the publishing house should have picked up.

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