Dave's review
(Not That You Asked): Rants, Exploits, and Obsessions
by Steve Almond
Dave's review
(Not That You Asked): Rants, Exploits, and Obsessions by Steve Almond
Dave's review
rating:
recommended for: pop culture fans
The opening salvo of Steve Almond's collection of essays, "(Not that You Asked)" was a shocker. It's title: "Dear Oprah."
Almond opens with a "pre-emptive" letter to Winfrey, rejecting her "offer" to make this volume one of her book club selections. It's laced with profanity, insult and the accusation that her commercializing of literature doesn't inspire new readers, it actually cheapens the work, and damages the integrity of the medium. A series of humorous "apology" letters follow, attempting to "undo" the damage of the first, but the sentiment behind the words ring true as a theme that Almond hammers home repeatedly through his essays.
His collective works read, in parts, like a self-congratulatory man's man stream of consciousness. They're chock full of profanity and sex, locker room or poker game conversation.
But it is also full of iron and unapologetic opinion about those things which Almond feels strongly abo...more
Almond opens with a "pre-emptive" letter to Winfrey, rejecting her "offer" to make this volume one of her book club selections. It's laced with profanity, insult and the accusation that her commercializing of literature doesn't inspire new readers, it actually cheapens the work, and damages the integrity of the medium. A series of humorous "apology" letters follow, attempting to "undo" the damage of the first, but the sentiment behind the words ring true as a theme that Almond hammers home repeatedly through his essays.
His collective works read, in parts, like a self-congratulatory man's man stream of consciousness. They're chock full of profanity and sex, locker room or poker game conversation.
But it is also full of iron and unapologetic opinion about those things which Almond feels strongly abo...more
