The Dog with the Chip in His Neck: Essays from NPR and Elsewhere

by Andrei Codrescu, Mary Sheepshanks

In this collection of essays, Codrescu focuses his keen eye on America in the "age of the chip." He confronts the convulsions of our post-ideological world at a time when "the advent of cyberspace and the caffeinating of America have occurred simultaneously." With poignancy and trenchant humor, he takes us on a roller-coaster tour of our dramatically changing country.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Romanian Literature, Humor

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Andrei Codrescu is a poet, novelist, essayist, and NPR commentator. His many books include Whatever Gets You through the Night, The Postmodern Dada Guide, and The Poetry Lesson. He was Mac Curdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University from 1984 until his retirement in 2009.

Reviews

[Lisa]

OK, so I didn't actually finish this book. I got about 70 pages in and realized I hated it. I hardly ever quit books in the middle, but that's usually because whatever I'm reading was recommended by someone, or is a "classic" or whatever, and I've found that with books like that, even if I hate a book and have to force myself to finish it, I totally come around in the end and start to like it. Or I can at least appreciate the writing. This book, however, was chosen randomly, probably because it said NPR on the cover and had a picture of a dog. So I didn't feel so bad giving up on it. This book is everything I hate about NPR. Big words, political statements that seem designed to make me feel stupid, wordy sentences that just make the author see slightly pretentious. It doesn't help that this was written about events of the 90s and before, during which time I was paying zero attention to politics, and I'm sure I'm calling things pretentious just because I personally don't understand them and want to assume that the fault is with the writing, not with my limited understanding. But the end point is that I wasn't enjoying this, I didn't understand half of it, and the half that I did understand I didn't find entertaining. I've got way too many books on my list to waste time with something that didn't capture my attention after 70 pages. Moving on.

[Greg]

I got this book as a present about 18 years ago, read a few pieces and set it aside. Now I remember why. There are a couple of interesting essays on language and post-Communist Eastern Europe. There are a few good quotes such as "The market is 'free,' which is to say savage." Another on how people responded to the fall of the Iron Curtain, "They need to lie down on a couch of their history and let the stories of their injuries flow. The shock of passing from a closely patrolled police state to relative freedom of expression has rendered people practically catatonic." But for the most part, the transcripts of Codrescu's NPR essays seem dated and too many of them now seem to be an effort of contrivance. It feels like somewhat like watching reruns of a sitcom you haven't seen since your teen years and wondering why you thought this was funny in the first place.

[snobbess sphaeritalius]

Codrescu describes the diasporic experience using a combination of poetic imagery, humor and a barrage of observations on steroids. This collection of essays from NPR is pretty great.

[Spider]

I passed this book on to my father in law many years ago. I don't think he ever read it...

[Julia]

Nice reading by author on Dove Audio tape