I gazed out my window on the sea of dark clouds as my shaking seatjiggled the image into double vision; and I pictured the flat, geometrically d... read full description
reviews
Aug 22, 2011
What a pleasant surprise this was.
First off, Benderson's eviscerations of the Northwest's dull middle-class culture are vicious and spot-on. Right on! And yet, he doesn't come off as just some terrible New York snob. Rather, he just reveals that maybe, today, the emperor might not be wearing any clothes.
And-- and I say this as a Northwesterner-- his enumerations of what is actually interesting about the region are just as accurate. I'm so glad this was written by an actual ou More...
First off, Benderson's eviscerations of the Northwest's dull middle-class culture are vicious and spot-on. Right on! And yet, he doesn't come off as just some terrible New York snob. Rather, he just reveals that maybe, today, the emperor might not be wearing any clothes.
And-- and I say this as a Northwesterner-- his enumerations of what is actually interesting about the region are just as accurate. I'm so glad this was written by an actual ou More...
Aug 04, 2011
Stephen
rated it: 
This book was soooooo lame. The premise sounded awesome. About a travel book written by someone who didn't want to really write it, full of increasingly-furious protestations in the form of an editor's footnotes. But I sort of want some of these hours of my life back. It's not written like a travel book. It's not even really written like a travelogue. It's just so ham-fisted in everything it does, and the writing is boring. This book does a lot of telling and not a lot of showing, and it's not f
More...
Jan 05, 2011
Cody
rated it: 
The narrative and structure of *Pacific Agony* are quite appealing: cynical and seditious east coast author is commissioned to write a guide to the Pacific Northwest, overseen by a regionally patriotic and rather uptight daughter of the Oregon Trail (whose voice is only found in the footnotes to the author’s manuscript). This premise seems to promise a humorous clash of cultures, and *Pacific Agony* does provide that, however, this conflict is played out to such an extreme degree that the text,
More...
Sep 25, 2010
Agnes
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Dec 29, 2009
Eric
rated it: 
At first I didn't like this book but stuck with it and got a kick out of it.
Nov 14, 2010
Janie
rated it:
Machu Stapler = best. name. evar. (Machu as in Machu Picchu. Mr. Stapler is the protagonist's distant publisher.)
- Benderson delights in handling the taboo.
- There's a distracting war between the unsympathetic and barely reliable narrator and the PNW annotator whose righteously indignant footnotes make you wonder who's nuttier.
- I didn't really like this book. But I liked how I didn't like it.
- Benderson delights in handling the taboo.
- There's a distracting war between the unsympathetic and barely reliable narrator and the PNW annotator whose righteously indignant footnotes make you wonder who's nuttier.
- I didn't really like this book. But I liked how I didn't like it.
May 26, 2010
Diane C.
rated it:
Completely nihilistic and hilarious!! A hack writer takes a job writing a travel piece on the northwest and Puget Sound, under false pretenses, and recounts his adventures here, his bitter sarcastic sense of humor at the ready.
Apr 02, 2010
Lis
rated it:
In the midst of my own pacific agony, I enjoyed reading this book for its sardonic treatment of northwestern cities. But otherwise... not all that interesting.
Mar 08, 2010
I thought this sounded like the funniest, greatest premise, but it ended up being a bit of a slog.
Feb 03, 2012
Jul 24, 2011
Jul 24, 2011
Nov 27, 2011
Jun 27, 2011
Jun 21, 2011
May 26, 2011
May 01, 2011
Apr 29, 2011
