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99th out of 106 books
—
110 voters
Tooth Imprints on a Corn Dog
by
Mark Leyner
A fiendishly innovative young writer ups the ante on his cult classics Et Tu, Babe and My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist with a book so funny that it ought to be a controlled substance. "With his pumped-up prose and steroidal satire . . . You could call him the Quentin Tarantino of cult fiction."--Newsweek.
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
January 3rd 1996
by Vintage
(first published 1995)
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halfway through this, i was like, what the hell is this?? it's like they're witty columns for magazines, or something! then i looked it up and it turned out that's exactly what they were... he was writing a column for esquire at the time, and a lot of the pieces are from there, though some also appeared in the new yorker, in shouts and murmurs, and elle and some other places. so, i guess it's stupid to hold what they are against them, but... i seem to be doing that anyway. don't get me wrong, th...more
Intensely funny. I'm sort of unsure what I think of it overall, though; I imagine I ought to read something else by Leyner before I can really form any sort of opinion on his writing. I'm used to making a personal distinction between postmodern writing and postmodernist writing, a distinction based on an almost entirely unsubstantiated assumption about the already theoretically problematic intention of the writer, the former just being postmodern, the latter being sort of written to advance and...more
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This is only the second book by Leyner that I've read. This is a collection of short stories. Some of them very short (two pages) and I think the longest one around 70 pages. The roughly 70 page "Young Bergdorf Goodman Brown" takes a form similar to that of The Tetherballs of Bougainville in that it switches from prose to fictitious screenplay. I happen to love this storytelling device of his. This is an account of him trying to buy a handbag (costing several thousand dollars) for his daughter's...more
Mostly the works seemed extremely pretentious. "the good seed" had me laugh out loud, and I was amused by pieces of "eat at cosmo's" and "the making of ...", but the amusement was much too rare in coming and not worth the trip. Here's a random sample of Mr. Leyner's writing (truly, I opened the book and this is the first sentence I read):
"The exemplary dad was an intermittent figure -- a Heroic Evanescence -- disappearing every morning into a mythic world of commerce, leaving behind a vestigial...more
"The exemplary dad was an intermittent figure -- a Heroic Evanescence -- disappearing every morning into a mythic world of commerce, leaving behind a vestigial...more
At its best, this approaches how much I liked Tetherballs. Not every piece is quite as magically delicious with leaps and imagination, perfectly blending the rot in the collective unconscious of modern America, but those that do really do. Young Bergdorf Goodman Brown alone gets this book 5 stars from me. Still, as these are shorter pieces things perhaps don't get rolling on the same kind of scale as Tetherballs. For that reason I still prefer Tetherballs more, though this is pretty close.
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Lucid, evocative, satirical and absurdist, this book is a head-spinner. Be prepared for wild vocabulary, impossible situations, irrational turns and more. If some of the satire wasn't so horrifying (but prescient) and the first section a little shorter, it would have gotten 5 stars from this guy.
Jul 07, 2007
Andy
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone who doesn't minds bursts of complex, esoteric language mixed with their social commentary
A prime cut of stimulating pieces from one of the best post-modern writers, his style resembling a hybrid of David Sedaris and William Burroughs. In this collection we have some laugh-out-loud moments, such as Leyner's associate whose sole literary recommendation is to use the Mossad as Deus ex Machina, a smooth examination of the relationship between criminality and beauty, and a few surprisingly sweet bits of personal essay. My introduction to Leyner was through "My Cousin, My Gastroenterologi...more
I moved this book to the top of the heap so that I could release it in Bookczuk's food and wine themed release challenge. I have attempted one of his other books and did not like it, hopefully this one will be different.
Turns out not so different. Parts of the book were funny, but for the most part it was like reading 220 pages of someone Else's Mad Libs. I probably won't read this author again.
Turns out not so different. Parts of the book were funny, but for the most part it was like reading 220 pages of someone Else's Mad Libs. I probably won't read this author again.
I don't think I entirely understand Mark Leyner. I mean, I laugh. Sometimes I commiserate. But for the most part I think he is too flowery for me. People seem to be charmed by this, however I am not.
really really good, it caught me completely off guard.
I want to delete this and don't know how.
Leyner is quickly becoming one of my favorites.
five stars just for the car bomb story.
Starts funny, gets less funny.
Skip the Wheaties and steroids. Read yerself some Leyner. It'll be fun onna bun!
the dialogue in the beginning of the book is rather boring, but once you get past that....the real laughs come
A great book must read for Mark Leyner Fans
A great book must read for Mark Leyner Fans
I got this book for $5 from a remainder table at the B Dalton in St. Clair Square. It's been ten years, and I can still quote sections of it. It is such a wrong book that its wrongness is indelible, scrub your brain as you may. Come for the Young Bergdorf Goodman Brown, stay for the executive tattoos. It's like Martha Stewart Living with more nudity and grisly crime.
Didn't approach the invention of My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist or the hilarity of The Tetherballs of Bougainville, but still a fun excursion through Leyner's collected articles and semi short stories.
This is a funny person.
I enjoy books that don't have to make a whole lot of sense, and it's easy when they are written well. Mr. Leyner is an excellent journalist and enjoyable author to boot.
My second-favorite Leyner book, really funny random pieces like "Young Bergdorf Goodman Brown."
May 03, 2013
Xoanon93
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Mark Leyner is an American postmodernist author.
Leyner employs an intense and unconventional style in his works of fiction. His stories are generally humorous and absurd: In The Tetherballs of Bougainville, Mark's father survives a lethal injection at the hands of the New Jersey penal system, and so is freed but must live the remainder of his life in fear of being executed, at New Jersey's discret...more
More about Mark Leyner...
Leyner employs an intense and unconventional style in his works of fiction. His stories are generally humorous and absurd: In The Tetherballs of Bougainville, Mark's father survives a lethal injection at the hands of the New Jersey penal system, and so is freed but must live the remainder of his life in fear of being executed, at New Jersey's discret...more
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