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At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream: Misadventures in Search of the Simple Life
by
Wade Rouse
We all dream it.
Wade Rouse actually did it.
Finally fed up with the frenzy of city life and a job he hates, Wade Rouse decided to make either the bravest decision of his life or the worst mistake since his botched Ogilvie home perm: to uproot his life and try, as Thoreau did some 160 years earlier, to "live a plain, simple life in radically reduced conditions."
In this rol...more
Wade Rouse actually did it.
Finally fed up with the frenzy of city life and a job he hates, Wade Rouse decided to make either the bravest decision of his life or the worst mistake since his botched Ogilvie home perm: to uproot his life and try, as Thoreau did some 160 years earlier, to "live a plain, simple life in radically reduced conditions."
In this rol...more
ebook, 0 pages
Published
June 2nd 2009
by Broadway
(first published May 27th 2009)
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Community Reviews
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Aug 12, 2012
Jimmie
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
queer,
in-podunk-or-thereabouts
Wade Rouse is a racist douchebag who is so full of himself I'm surprised he has room for his boyfriend's dick.
And what particularly bugs me is I was really looking forward to reading this book when I picked it up. Ever since Matthew (and if you don't know which Matthew, I will hurt you), I've been obsessed with gays in rural areas and small towns.
But Rouse is so freaking obnoxious I found myself hoping he'd get eaten by one of the wild animals roaming around his property.
Dig this gem: "A large p...more
And what particularly bugs me is I was really looking forward to reading this book when I picked it up. Ever since Matthew (and if you don't know which Matthew, I will hurt you), I've been obsessed with gays in rural areas and small towns.
But Rouse is so freaking obnoxious I found myself hoping he'd get eaten by one of the wild animals roaming around his property.
Dig this gem: "A large p...more
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Believe it or not, Wade was once a rural boy. But he was a GAY rural boy and got tired of being teased, picked on and harassed…or simply not having a place that served a decent latte. So he ran to the city, got himself a boyfriend and all the Starbucks coffee he could drink.
Now, years later, he feels less than fulfilled. He’s busy but he’s not happy. He loves the city but he can’t stand his job. So he’s going to be like Thoreau and simplify his needs. He wants peace and quiet to think and figur...more
Now, years later, he feels less than fulfilled. He’s busy but he’s not happy. He loves the city but he can’t stand his job. So he’s going to be like Thoreau and simplify his needs. He wants peace and quiet to think and figur...more
Wade Rouse is my new favorite author and this is the book that started it all. I picked this up because I could identify with the title. Rural areas have always scared the crap out of me, conjuring up images of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre house. This book was laugh out loud funny from the get go- so hilarious that I actually just used the phrase "laugh out loud funny." His voice and his timing are excellent and really make the book hard to put down. I found myself frequently reading excerpts to...more
"Misadventures" of a man who hits 40 with a resounding thud and resolves to uproot his life, quit his job and leave the city, cable, culture and consumerism behind in order to move to a knotty-pine cottage in the middle of the Michigan woods to recreate a modern-day Walden. The memoir chronicles ultimate urbanite Wade and his partner, Gary, as they embrace 10 Life Lessons -- sort of a City/Country Smackdown -- based on trying to achieve a simpler life but also rooted in the tenets of Walden (thi...more
I couldn't decide which rating to give this book (three or four stars?), but I had to go with four because it made me laugh out loud so many times (much to the chagrin of the husband falling asleep beside me).
I have a problem with books in that I desire something besides the usually depressing nonfiction (politics, industrial food, proliferation of toxins, social injustice, general environmental devastation) and fiction (Russian novelists, early American women writers, black literature, social...more
I have a problem with books in that I desire something besides the usually depressing nonfiction (politics, industrial food, proliferation of toxins, social injustice, general environmental devastation) and fiction (Russian novelists, early American women writers, black literature, social...more
I had to put this book down on page 10 and walk away for a bit. Most of those ten pages were spent describe just how gay the author is. Instead of using one pithy, funny example or metaphor, Rouse uses them all. He had so many funny lines in his head that he couldn't choose, so he didn't. It was as though each "I'm so gay that..." line was his child, and he couldn't bear to get rid of any of them. (See how I pretty much repeated myself, using three sentences to say what could have been conveyed...more
This is a mostly funny memoir about two gay men who decide to leave the city and buy a cottage in the woods near Saugatuck, a resort city on Michigan's west coast. I'm strangely attracted to the "Green Acres" city to country trope, and Rouse's combination of snark, self-deprecation, and insight into small towns and rural communities is fun, although once in a while he carries his hyperbole just a bit too far. Mostly when he's talking about shoes, tight jeans, and flab.
This is the kind of passage...more
This is the kind of passage...more
Dec 26, 2011
Karyl
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
library-reads,
non-fiction
In need of something funny and light, I picked this up from the memoirs section of the library. I was really looking forward to it, but alas, it wasn't quite as great as I had hoped. For one thing, I didn't laugh. Not one time. Oh, sure, there were funny bits sprinkled in, but nothing that was laugh-out-loud worthy. (In fact, I just started Christopher Moore's A Dirty Job and have already laughed out loud, or at least snorted, a couple of times.) It's such a shame, because I was looking forward...more
Fabulously gay PR exec moves from the big city to the woods of Michigan in order to write a book. Extreme culture shock ensues. In a funny way.
I picked up this book after reading a positive review in a magazine. It's a memoir and the writer, Wade, is one of those infectiously high-spirited and amusing people that you like even when they're being really self-absorbed and kind of annoying. Wade is one of those gay guys who is in love with his own stereotype. He lives for fab parties, designer clot...more
I picked up this book after reading a positive review in a magazine. It's a memoir and the writer, Wade, is one of those infectiously high-spirited and amusing people that you like even when they're being really self-absorbed and kind of annoying. Wade is one of those gay guys who is in love with his own stereotype. He lives for fab parties, designer clot...more
Now look. I don't care how much your grandma liked Thoreau or how absurdly citified you are, Saugatuck ( http://www.saugatuck.com/index.asp ) is not the wilderness. And Saugatuck aside, the characterization of Michigan got my back up a little bit, since he basically used it as a casual synonym for "howling redneck wasteland/Siberia." We are not without our rednecks but I'd say, first, that Michigan is about a demographically varied a state as there is, and, second, that our howling wilderness is...more
Hilarious!
The author chronicles the first months after having moved with his partner from St. Louis to a cottage in rural Michigan just outside the gay-friendly resort town of Saugatuck. The pages are filled with witty prose in short segments that extoll how a gay couple uproot their lives and transition from an urbane life to a more rural, and hopefully, improved existence. I sought this book based on a recommendation from a friend. It appealed to me because of the humor in hearing of a gay couple moving...more
Wade Rouse's writing style is so hyperbolized I didn't believe most of the book. I kinda feel like he knew this because sometimes he actually attached phrases like "I swear this actually happened" to the end of a story where woodland creatures gang up on him in his yard and he stumbles over a raccoon dog toy trying to get back into the house.
The only time I didn't feel this way was during the chapter based on religion. He skirted the shallow and stereotypical gay Spoiled Brat voice and actually...more
The only time I didn't feel this way was during the chapter based on religion. He skirted the shallow and stereotypical gay Spoiled Brat voice and actually...more
The concept of a fish out of water as a comedic device is an old and successful one. From “Green Acres” to “The Fabulous Beekman Boys,” it works especially well when city folk go to the country in search of a simpler life. In the instance of Wade Rouse’s “At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream,” a gay couple from St. Louis leave the big city for small town Michigan. Comedy predictably and successfully ensues from dealing with wildlife to church pot luck dinners to shopping at WalMart....more
I liked Rouse's America's Boy quite a bit, though gave up early on his next one, Mommy Handler. This one falls somewhere between the two. He's a good writer, and knows how to laugh at himself, but either he's playing up his and Gary's shallow materialism for comic effect, or they're really, really shallow and materialistic! And here's the problem: he extrapolates that most, if not all, gay guys are the same. At one point he asserts that they (we!) cannot live without regular tanning visits. I've...more
A friend bought me this book shortly after I had a surgery. It was the perfect book because I needed a laugh (or 300).
Ya know, there's just something about a humorous gay dude that can freaking write. The author is amazingly funny. This book actually reminded me of another book I read earlier this year, The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers. It's the same basic idea, a long time gay couple decide to get away from the city and move to the middle of nowhere. Only, Wade...more
Ya know, there's just something about a humorous gay dude that can freaking write. The author is amazingly funny. This book actually reminded me of another book I read earlier this year, The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers. It's the same basic idea, a long time gay couple decide to get away from the city and move to the middle of nowhere. Only, Wade...more
I couldn't help it - here are some of my favorite parts of this book.
I FREAKING LOVE WADE ROUSE.
"I, of course, read this too late, like I do everything in my life: the nutrition chart on Little Debbie boxes, the prescription for my Xanax, the size 4 tag in the back of my "men's" jeans."
"And then I had one of those life-changing days, the really big, super-shocking kind, the kind, perhaps, that Mary had when she learned she was a pregnant virgin or Jennifer Grey experienced when the bandages came...more
I FREAKING LOVE WADE ROUSE.
"I, of course, read this too late, like I do everything in my life: the nutrition chart on Little Debbie boxes, the prescription for my Xanax, the size 4 tag in the back of my "men's" jeans."
"And then I had one of those life-changing days, the really big, super-shocking kind, the kind, perhaps, that Mary had when she learned she was a pregnant virgin or Jennifer Grey experienced when the bandages came...more
We all dream it. Wade Rouse actually did it. Finally fed up with the frenzy of city life and a job he hates, Wade Rouse decided to make either the bravest decision of his life or the worst mistake since his botched Ogilvie home perm: to leave culture, cable, and consumerism behind and strike out, a la Thoreau, for rural America - a place with fewer people than in his former spinning class. There, Wade battles blizzards, bloodthirsty critters, and nosy neighbors with night-vision goggles, and dis...more
Charming book. I read a bit of it in October before I had to put it down for the month of November to work on my own book. Picked it up again December 1st and laughed my way through it.
I really don't know how to explain this in a way that will do it justice. A gay man and his partner move from the city to the middle of nowhere and try to survive without the luxuries that they had been used to. All the misadventures are hilarious as they battle with nature, the snow, and each other.
The only part...more
I really don't know how to explain this in a way that will do it justice. A gay man and his partner move from the city to the middle of nowhere and try to survive without the luxuries that they had been used to. All the misadventures are hilarious as they battle with nature, the snow, and each other.
The only part...more
I read Rouse's first book "Americas Boy" and found it to be really a funny, sad, and honest portrayal of a young gay boy growing up in the middle of nowhere. I could totally relate to it and really enjoyed it.
This book was Okay. I enjoyed it for the most part, but about half way through I realized that the reason I wasn't enjoying this book as much as the first is because I could relate to Wade in the first book.
In this book, I found him harder to relate to. He had gone from a country boy tryin...more
This book was Okay. I enjoyed it for the most part, but about half way through I realized that the reason I wasn't enjoying this book as much as the first is because I could relate to Wade in the first book.
In this book, I found him harder to relate to. He had gone from a country boy tryin...more
Yes, we get it. You are gay and rich and OMG so bloody WHINY. At least he admits it... Well actually that's the premise for the book. "look! I'm whiny even though I should be grateful! Isn't it so amusing?!" Yes, I suppose I did laugh at times. And the few soulful chapters were touching. But for the most part it felt hollow when surrounded by so much complaining. Oh, and despite the reviews, the only thing this guy has in common with David Sedaris is that they are both gay men. I'm a lesbian and...more
i have kind of a weird sense of humor, so most books/movies/shows that are supposed to be "funny" just strike me as kind of annoying and stupid. but, god damn, this book was hilarious! i especially liked the part about nearly getting gaybashed in walmart but subverting the hateful heteros in an unexpected way. mr. rouse can certainly turn a phrase. when he referred to gardening as "pampering some peppers," i nearly died.
he also likes to portray himself as a totally shallow gay dude, but this boo...more
he also likes to portray himself as a totally shallow gay dude, but this boo...more
In this memoir, Rouse and his partner give up their city life and move to the woods of Michigan. The book is loosely centered on Thoreau's lessons. I think this was the weakest of his writings, but I still enjoyed it very much. He essentially removes himself from the trappings of modern life (especially modern gay life) including Starbucks, fancy boutiques, shoes, housewares, etc but finds he still longs for them. Eventually, of course, he comes to peace with their new life but it is not without...more
Another entry in the Following Your Passion/Fish Out of Water memoir genre. Rouse and his partner leave behind their urban lifestyle for a cabin in Michigan's Lake Michigan resort area. While Rouse probably intends his anedotes to be funny and charming, he comes off as shallow and self-centered instead. Again and again, he lists the stores and brand names he left behind in the city, and he portrays all the locals as hicks and all the resorters as obnoxious. The memoir achieves emotional depth wh...more
Oct 26, 2010
Emily
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
biography-memoir,
nonfiction
I enjoyed this memoir-some parts were laugh-out-loud funny. Sometimes the pop cultural references got a little heavy, but I appreciated his sense of humor along with revelations about himself and what following a dream means. I loved the bits with Marge.
I do wish there hadn't been the disclaimer at the beginning about how some of the people were composites of several different people and that some of the narrative had been "recast". When I was enjoying certain sections, I kept wondering if it ha...more
I do wish there hadn't been the disclaimer at the beginning about how some of the people were composites of several different people and that some of the narrative had been "recast". When I was enjoying certain sections, I kept wondering if it ha...more
A pleasant enough read. There was places that I laughed out loud but I didn't really get into it until the last quarter of the book. Although his anecdotes are funny I felt he didn't really put himself into the book until he started talking about spirituality in lesson eight. He puts a lot of popular culture analogies in his stories which might turn people off if they don't get the references. Also, I get that he's a vain homosexual who wants to look good even taking the trash out in the middle...more
Book about moving from the city to the country to (try to) live off the land and find oneself. The move was to Saugatuck, Mi. Quite humorous in parts. A lot of name-brand dropping which began to come across as shallow (which the author admits to being). I'm sure some of the uber-stereotypes exist in this area, but often it seemed to be generalized (ALL country people, ALL Michigan people), and I found it interesting for MI to be called, on many occasions, the north. I realize we ARE north, but i...more
This is a fun-to-read memoir! The premise of a St. Louis professional and writer and his partner uprooting their lives to move to rural Michigan certainly provides a lot of comedic fodder. Rouse balances the hilarity (and frivolity) with his use of Thoreau’s Walden as a guide to adapting to country living and embracing a new lifestyle. Through the Walden frame, Rouse touches on bigger issues like relationships, religion, pet ownership, following your dreams - but still manages to include detaile...more
I bought this book because I read the first few pages in the bookstore and literally snorted I laughed so hard. Unfortunately as I continued into the book I didn't find it nearly as funny - or endearing. I would periodically put the book down and then come back to it. It wasn't holding my attention - but it was an easy read, for days when my brain was already fried.
I feared though, as I read, that it was becoming another let-me-described-to-you-how-gay-I-am-and-how-tedious-everyone-else-is-to-m...more
I feared though, as I read, that it was becoming another let-me-described-to-you-how-gay-I-am-and-how-tedious-everyone-else-is-to-m...more
This memoir about a gay couple who decide to change up their cynical, hectic city lives and move into a cabin in the woods to live like Thoureau is a quick read and had some entertaining moments, but it's laid on so thick that I'm not sure I trusted the writer to be writing a memoir and not a novel. And taking it at face value as a memoir, I didn't really like him that much. And when the inevitable happens and he learns valuable life-changing lessons I found it fairly cloying and shallow in a TV...more
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In this memoir showcasing the ugly side of the affluent mothers of the pseudonymous Tate Academy, among the country's most prestigious prep schools, Rouse, the school's director of public relations, explains that his job is that of the Mommy Handler-keeping the families and benefactors of the institution happy. In particular, he works closely with a woman he calls Kitsy, the head of the parent and...more
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