A book I value more for style than substance, but gosh darn it I do like Saunders style.

In one of these pieces he describes standing right on the border between the U.S. and Mexico and declaring "I'm nowhere!" and this sums up much of the collection for me; Saunders stands on the border between fiction and reportage, despair and hilarity, intelligence and thinking-too-much and not-thinking enough (this is a tricky spot to stand on where three countries converge on one spot). Some of these "essays" are pure fictional works - manifestos of non-existent non-terrorist groups, notes typed by dogs - and yet if one tries to read them as if they really are essays then the reader (this reader anyway) can see the point Saunders is driving at. He's a real nowhere man - and I like it.

My big complaint is that some of these pieces go on too long. Here I'm thinking of " Ask the Optimist!" in particular - a piece that made me think of how my older brother used to torture me by telling long rambling, pointless stories when I was trying to fall asleep.

And some of his logic, as in The Thought Experiment is weak.

On the plus side, his re-interpretation of the lyrics to Fergie's "My Humps" made me laugh until I cried.