false 33306 4 Having detailed the agonies of writing a book in his monologue Monster in a Box, Spalding Gray now gives us the monster itself: a convulsively funny, unexpectedly moving novel about a man eternally searching for a moment of protected pleasure even as he is permanently incapable of finding it.<br><br>Brewster North witnesses his mother's madness but misses her suicide; searches frantically for enlightenment in the Poconos and zipless sex in India; suffers family ennui in Rhode Island and a nervous breakdown in Amsterdam. In the process he emerges as a hilariously complex everyman. And as Gray narrates his hero's free fall, he confirms his own stature as one of our funniest, most eccentric, and most engaging storytellers. 2316568 1992 Impossible Vacation total:215|5:47|4:87|3:63|2:7|1:11| 215 797 291 30 5 8 false false Sun May 01 00:00:00 -0700 1994 Sat Mar 08 10:09:12 -0800 2008 Sun Mar 09 15:26:03 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 1 false false Mon Jul 16 23:30:41 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 16 23:32:53 -0700 2007 1 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 25 18:17:56 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 25 18:23:17 -0800 2009
But as I continued reading it I realized that I only liked hearing that voice in small does. His insecurity, narca...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 1992 Mon Sep 28 23:33:57 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 16:36:11 -0700 2009
I first read an excerpt of Impossible Vacation in the May 1992 issue of Playboy, and was immediately hooked. It's an insane story, a brilliant, ruthlessly honest recap of how a man loses his mind and gets it back again. Often hilarious and miserable ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Mar 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 09 05:36:01 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 30 06:37:59 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 true false Thu Apr 17 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 06:34:35 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 17 07:51:09 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 0 false false Tue Sep 18 08:03:17 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 18 15:39:52 -0700 2007
Unfortunately, it was an almost incre...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Feb 26 07:16:35 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 26 07:18:21 -0800 2009 4 0 true false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 12 08:41:09 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 12 08:49:23 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Oct 17 12:39:16 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 17 12:43:27 -0700 2008 Monster in a Box, which essentially the describes the excruciating process the hypernuerotic Gray went through to write this book.

I've been a huge Spauling Gray fan since I discovered Swimming to Cambodia, both the mo...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1992 Sat Mar 28 10:33:02 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 28 10:38:20 -0700 2009 1 4 0 false false Fri Jan 09 07:11:15 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 09 07:11:56 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Sun Apr 20 07:31:34 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 21 16:50:18 -0700 2008 On The Road but with more drugs, booze and profligate sex. It's particularly enlightening since I've had such a sheltered life, not experiencing any of those things...... okay, but two out of three isn't bad. The main character here is rather pathetic, yo...more...]]> 3 0 true false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 09 17:04:57 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 10 04:36:32 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Sep 14 10:50:03 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 14 10:59:57 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Mar 14 10:51:19 -0700 2007 Wed Mar 14 11:31:35 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Sep 27 22:17:43 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 27 22:21:22 -0700 2007
I couldn't decide whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. It's absorbing but also disturbing, especially when you're aware of Spaulding Gray's fate.

Spaulding Gray, is the perhaps the ancestor of the "tell-all" memoir and in his case convincingly believable and perh...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jun 16 21:04:02 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 16 21:06:17 -0700 2007 2 0 false false Sat Mar 29 06:47:25 -0700 2008 Thu Mar 27 08:34:37 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 29 06:45:00 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Sat Jul 26 15:53:05 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 26 16:00:47 -0700 2008