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The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature: The Collected Writings of Neal Pollack
Neal Pollack has been the Greatest Living American Writer across six decades, seven continents, and ten wives. He has won the Pulitzer Prize, the Booker Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award (twice), and the Premio Simon Bolivar for contributions to the people's struggle in Latin America. In 1985, Pollack's writing was declared "beyond our meager standards" by the Swedish Academy
With the publication of The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature, the definitive collection of his work in English, a new generation of readers is set to discover nothing less than the ultimate meaning of human existence on earth. This astonishing work of fictitious nonfiction, the funniest and most creatively styled postmodernist confection of its time, has been universally praised as the best book ever written except for maybe Don Quixote and The Shipping News. The Anthology -- now expanded, updated, and thoroughly repaginated -- answers, once and for all, the question that has plagued American society in general, and literary critics in particular, since Neal Pollack was born: "Who is Neal Pollack?" At last, we know.
With the publication of The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature, the definitive collection of his work in English, a new generation of readers is set to discover nothing less than the ultimate meaning of human existence on earth. This astonishing work of fictitious nonfiction, the funniest and most creatively styled postmodernist confection of its time, has been universally praised as the best book ever written except for maybe Don Quixote and The Shipping News. The Anthology -- now expanded, updated, and thoroughly repaginated -- answers, once and for all, the question that has plagued American society in general, and literary critics in particular, since Neal Pollack was born: "Who is Neal Pollack?" At last, we know.
205 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
3 people are currently reading
219 people want to read
About the author
Neal Pollack
51 books124 followersNeal Pollack’s first book, The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature, was published in 2000, becoming an (almost) instant cult classic. His debut novel, Never Mind the Pollacks, hit shelves in 2003, and was shamelessly promoted by his band, The Neal Pollack Invasion. In 2007, he published Alternadad, a best-selling memoir. In 2010, Pollack became a certified yoga teacher and published Stretch, a nonfiction account of his adventures in American yoga culture. He has contributed to The New York Times, Wired, Slate, Yoga Journal, and Vanity Fair, among many other publications. Thomas & Mercer published his historical noir novel Jewball in March 2012, and debuted his "yoga detective" novel, Downward-Facing Death, in serialized fiction form in September, 2012. His latest book, a time-traveling romantic comedy called Repeat, will be published in March 2015. He and his wife, the painter Regina Allen, live with their son in Austin, Texas.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
June 22, 2007
one of the first full-length books put out by mcsweeney's (or maybe the first, i can't remember now), neal pollack's hilarious fake memoir of his '60s gonzo-journalism days got its start as a series of live performances in chicago's poetry community in the 1990s. excellent stuff that will make you pee in your pants, written years before his unfortunate "alternadad" stage. neal, seriously, move out of that stage as fast as you can!
May 23, 2015
Maybe the funniest book I have ever read. No foolin'!
June 5, 2020
This book is a satire and critique on egocentric self-praising writers. How these writers use superfluous sentimental values in their writings to portray the social, political and economic issues surrounding the world. It is a purely fictional work including the cover, blurb, reviews, photos and even the author with all his shiny and overwhelming biography.
An anthology of selected articles previously published during the author’s heroic and vast literary tenure. Funny and exciting, mostly filled with excessive self-praise, promiscuity, and humour.
An anthology of selected articles previously published during the author’s heroic and vast literary tenure. Funny and exciting, mostly filled with excessive self-praise, promiscuity, and humour.
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February 5, 2008I hope the system allows me to enter a review without entering a rating, because there is no way that this dreck is getting a star from me.
Reader, be warned! Take care to avoid the interminable scribblings of Neal Pollack*, who appears deadset on exercising his constitutional right to bespatter the internet with his noxious drivel, much as a particularly pestilent skein of Canada geese might choose to befoul a suburban office park. Ingesting that goose guano won't do you any good; similarly, even threshold exposure to the inanities perpetrated on an innocent world by Neal Pollack is likely to kill brain cells. In significant numbers.
The reasons for Neal's inclusion in the Pantheon of authors who are not just bad, but detestable and obnoxious to boot, are straightforward:
Neal Pollack is not funny.
Neal Pollack is not clever.
Neal Pollack is delusional; specifically, he apparently believes himself to be both clever and funny.
Neal Pollack writes. Far more than he should.
In an unfortunate quirk of fate, at some point, something moved the folks at McSweeney's (perhaps a desire to burnish their image as "fresh" "risk-takers") to publish a collection of Neal Pollack's scribblings in book form. This single appalling lapse in taste and judgement appears to have spawned the monster that currently goes by the name of Neal Pollack; since the publication of that McSweeney's book, a veritable tsunami of drivel has been unleashed, attributed to Neal Pollack.
None of this material is good. What is hard to convey here is just how bad it is. Perhaps the best analogy is Drew Carey - a "comedian" who not only is incapable of ever being funny, but is guaranteed to suck all possible humour out of any room he infests. Add to the complete absence of wit, the complete absence of even the remotest clue and Neal's apparently boundless self-infatuation and you've got a self-aggrandizing, fatuous buffoon.
Flee, gentle reader, flee! Make for the higher ground.
* The possibility must be acknowledged that "Neal Pollack" is not a real person, but instead represents some kind of overly clever experiment being perpetrated by those brainiacs at McSweeney's. It hardly matters. Drivel is drivel, and if it is some kind of fancy McSweeney's experiment, it would hardly be the first superficially clever notion of theirs to backfire into tedium.
Reader, be warned! Take care to avoid the interminable scribblings of Neal Pollack*, who appears deadset on exercising his constitutional right to bespatter the internet with his noxious drivel, much as a particularly pestilent skein of Canada geese might choose to befoul a suburban office park. Ingesting that goose guano won't do you any good; similarly, even threshold exposure to the inanities perpetrated on an innocent world by Neal Pollack is likely to kill brain cells. In significant numbers.
The reasons for Neal's inclusion in the Pantheon of authors who are not just bad, but detestable and obnoxious to boot, are straightforward:
Neal Pollack is not funny.
Neal Pollack is not clever.
Neal Pollack is delusional; specifically, he apparently believes himself to be both clever and funny.
Neal Pollack writes. Far more than he should.
In an unfortunate quirk of fate, at some point, something moved the folks at McSweeney's (perhaps a desire to burnish their image as "fresh" "risk-takers") to publish a collection of Neal Pollack's scribblings in book form. This single appalling lapse in taste and judgement appears to have spawned the monster that currently goes by the name of Neal Pollack; since the publication of that McSweeney's book, a veritable tsunami of drivel has been unleashed, attributed to Neal Pollack.
None of this material is good. What is hard to convey here is just how bad it is. Perhaps the best analogy is Drew Carey - a "comedian" who not only is incapable of ever being funny, but is guaranteed to suck all possible humour out of any room he infests. Add to the complete absence of wit, the complete absence of even the remotest clue and Neal's apparently boundless self-infatuation and you've got a self-aggrandizing, fatuous buffoon.
Flee, gentle reader, flee! Make for the higher ground.
* The possibility must be acknowledged that "Neal Pollack" is not a real person, but instead represents some kind of overly clever experiment being perpetrated by those brainiacs at McSweeney's. It hardly matters. Drivel is drivel, and if it is some kind of fancy McSweeney's experiment, it would hardly be the first superficially clever notion of theirs to backfire into tedium.
July 1, 2018
Did the audiobook version in one big session and glad I did.
November 7, 2008
thought I had read great literature. But I was utterly deluded. Prior to reading this collection I did not know what great literature was. To compare Neal Pollack with Steinbeck or Hemingway does him no justice. He is the Greatest Author of All Time.
This anthology spans through several decades of a prosperous career. Throughout it is apparent how influential Pollack has been socially, politically, and sexually. His relationships with powerful people are enough to even make Karl Rove gush.
Pollack's dangerous and invigorating undercover work exemplify what real journalism is all about. In "A Doctor Cannot Save Your Life," Pollack selflessly helps those in need and still has time to shag a dying patient's mother. Another example of Pollack's investigative reporting is brilliantly displayed in "Teenagers: The Enemy Within." Pollack sees a need in this world and fills it. For us to be whole human beings, we must understand the inner workings of the teenage mind. So Pollack risks his own life by hitting on a teenage girl, struggling through a stint in juvie, pretending to be a teenage girl, joining a cult of angry transgendered youths, and throwing a killer rave in Jersey. No other writer in history has ever put their own agendas aside to expose the tender underbelly of America's youth like Pollack.
Not only has Neal Pollack won a lot of awards, he's also ridiculously sexy, even in his advanced age. This is why he gets an A+. But beware: Once you read this book everything else you ever read will be shit. Just shit.
This anthology spans through several decades of a prosperous career. Throughout it is apparent how influential Pollack has been socially, politically, and sexually. His relationships with powerful people are enough to even make Karl Rove gush.
Pollack's dangerous and invigorating undercover work exemplify what real journalism is all about. In "A Doctor Cannot Save Your Life," Pollack selflessly helps those in need and still has time to shag a dying patient's mother. Another example of Pollack's investigative reporting is brilliantly displayed in "Teenagers: The Enemy Within." Pollack sees a need in this world and fills it. For us to be whole human beings, we must understand the inner workings of the teenage mind. So Pollack risks his own life by hitting on a teenage girl, struggling through a stint in juvie, pretending to be a teenage girl, joining a cult of angry transgendered youths, and throwing a killer rave in Jersey. No other writer in history has ever put their own agendas aside to expose the tender underbelly of America's youth like Pollack.
Not only has Neal Pollack won a lot of awards, he's also ridiculously sexy, even in his advanced age. This is why he gets an A+. But beware: Once you read this book everything else you ever read will be shit. Just shit.
February 11, 2015
I bought this book shortly after graduating college, and remember going to a reading at the University Book Store in Madison, and then (due to a random connection) going out with Pollack for beers afterward. His inscription in the book says "Brian, you have followed me long and hard, and these are the thanks I give you? Shame on me."
Anyway, this is a funny collection of stories, but re-reading it years later, they're extremely one note. The conceit in all of them is basically that he's the best writer in American history, as well as a sexual god, and he's chronicling his interactions with all the mortals who worship him. It's sharp writing, but like a PG Wodehouse collection, a few of these go a long way. I'd probably have given it four stars back in 2000, but now it's a solid three.
As a footnote here, I wondered what Pollack had been up to in the past 15 years, because I haven't heard much about him, so I Googled it. Turns out that he's still writing books (with marginal success), but also that two years ago he won $60k on Jeopardy. Huh!
Anyway, this is a funny collection of stories, but re-reading it years later, they're extremely one note. The conceit in all of them is basically that he's the best writer in American history, as well as a sexual god, and he's chronicling his interactions with all the mortals who worship him. It's sharp writing, but like a PG Wodehouse collection, a few of these go a long way. I'd probably have given it four stars back in 2000, but now it's a solid three.
As a footnote here, I wondered what Pollack had been up to in the past 15 years, because I haven't heard much about him, so I Googled it. Turns out that he's still writing books (with marginal success), but also that two years ago he won $60k on Jeopardy. Huh!
September 25, 2021
Maybe this book would have been funny if I had read it twenty years ago when I wanted to be the kind of intellectual who loved all McSweeney’s things and bought it for that reason, but as of now, it’s not.
February 18, 2010
Very funny. It's smart silly, especially if you know American lit. A little one-note, so best enjoyed in small doses. Ah, McSweeney's.
December 30, 2019
There is some humor here, and I like the energy. It gets old for me a little fast though. Maybe I should have read these bits one at a time instead of together as a book.
May 2, 2018
The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature is a collection of 32 pieces of fake journalistic nonfiction satirizing the vanity of self-indulgent writers. The fictional Neal Pollack travels to the world’s most despondent places, bringing with him the beacon of hope that is Neal Pollack.
Everything about this book is funny, including the fake biography, fake praise, fake (I think) New York Times Book Review, fake correspondences, and fake nonfiction. It’s so thorough that it takes care of everything needed to write a review. (I’ve tinkered with the below somewhat to make it cohesive, but it’s more or less directly from the book.)
From the Study Guide Introduction: Neal Pollack has been the Greatest Living American Writer across six decades, seven continents, and ten wives. He has won the Pulitzer Prize, the Booker Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award (twice), and the Premio Simon Bolivar for contributions to the people’s struggle in Latin America. In 1985, Pollack’s writing was declared “beyond our standards” by the Swedish Academy. In the Anthology, Pollack seeks to discover nothing less than the meaning of human existence on Earth. As always, he succeeds.
No one sees the world like Pollack. Anyone would be an idiot to even try.
From the fake (I think) New York Times Book Review: Neal Pollack is a name-dropping, self-aggrandizing, oversexed litterateur who considers himself the greatest magazine journalist, novelist, and poet in the history of American letters. He collects Pulitzers, Bookers, and National Book Awards the way furniture collects dust.
The anthology’s “excerpts” from seven decades of fictional Pollack’s journalism serve to parody the genre of literary journalism, and the joke proves surprisingly durable given its narrow premise.
From Pollack’s Introduction: “Quite simply,” said my editor, as we shared a sampling of that delectable weed, marijuana, “your work represents a comprehensive social, cultural, and political portrait of humanity in the latter half of the twentieth century.”
At 17, after a brilliant Harvard career, I sailed to the South Pacific, where I killed people in the service of Empire. Upon returning, my first novel, Killing People in the Service of Empire, won the National Book Award. Each subsequent book changed literature forever until the next book, which changed literature again.
From the Study Guide Discussion: Is Pollack’s book remarkable because of the incredible empathy that he has for his characters, or because of his stylistic and narrative risks? Why is he able, like no other Western author, to understand the struggles of the world’s forgotten people.
Excerpts:
From a piece on Albania: I wake up early this morning and watch the village children play soccer with the bloated carcass of a cat. I’ve been here so long that this kind of thing doesn’t bother me anymore, so I join in. I score three goals and make a game-winning save. The children gather around me and ask about my life in the more bohemian sections of Brooklyn. I show them a picture of my girlfriend.
From a piece on Rwanda: A peanut of a boy, no older than eight, tugged at my pants leg. “My friends and I enjoy your Web page very much,” he said. “It is often the only ray of hope in the waking tragedy that is our life.” … For a few brief minutes every day somewhere in the world, my little Web page was helping to ease the pain of genocide.
From a piece featuring his lesbian sister: … when she came out to the family a few years ago, I was especially accepting.
The only issue that I had with this collection was that some of the prose was too dense and included too many obscure references. But since that’s part of the schtick, even though it’s occasionally sleep-inducing, it’s nothing really to complain about.
All in all, The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature is loaded with little LOLs, and anyone who enjoys satire should eat this up. 4.5 pearls rounded up to 5.
For Goodreads: For more reviews, check out The Comedic Novel Review at www.pearlsbeforeswine68.com which is also home to the Great White Host Blog.
Everything about this book is funny, including the fake biography, fake praise, fake (I think) New York Times Book Review, fake correspondences, and fake nonfiction. It’s so thorough that it takes care of everything needed to write a review. (I’ve tinkered with the below somewhat to make it cohesive, but it’s more or less directly from the book.)
From the Study Guide Introduction: Neal Pollack has been the Greatest Living American Writer across six decades, seven continents, and ten wives. He has won the Pulitzer Prize, the Booker Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award (twice), and the Premio Simon Bolivar for contributions to the people’s struggle in Latin America. In 1985, Pollack’s writing was declared “beyond our standards” by the Swedish Academy. In the Anthology, Pollack seeks to discover nothing less than the meaning of human existence on Earth. As always, he succeeds.
No one sees the world like Pollack. Anyone would be an idiot to even try.
From the fake (I think) New York Times Book Review: Neal Pollack is a name-dropping, self-aggrandizing, oversexed litterateur who considers himself the greatest magazine journalist, novelist, and poet in the history of American letters. He collects Pulitzers, Bookers, and National Book Awards the way furniture collects dust.
The anthology’s “excerpts” from seven decades of fictional Pollack’s journalism serve to parody the genre of literary journalism, and the joke proves surprisingly durable given its narrow premise.
From Pollack’s Introduction: “Quite simply,” said my editor, as we shared a sampling of that delectable weed, marijuana, “your work represents a comprehensive social, cultural, and political portrait of humanity in the latter half of the twentieth century.”
At 17, after a brilliant Harvard career, I sailed to the South Pacific, where I killed people in the service of Empire. Upon returning, my first novel, Killing People in the Service of Empire, won the National Book Award. Each subsequent book changed literature forever until the next book, which changed literature again.
From the Study Guide Discussion: Is Pollack’s book remarkable because of the incredible empathy that he has for his characters, or because of his stylistic and narrative risks? Why is he able, like no other Western author, to understand the struggles of the world’s forgotten people.
Excerpts:
From a piece on Albania: I wake up early this morning and watch the village children play soccer with the bloated carcass of a cat. I’ve been here so long that this kind of thing doesn’t bother me anymore, so I join in. I score three goals and make a game-winning save. The children gather around me and ask about my life in the more bohemian sections of Brooklyn. I show them a picture of my girlfriend.
From a piece on Rwanda: A peanut of a boy, no older than eight, tugged at my pants leg. “My friends and I enjoy your Web page very much,” he said. “It is often the only ray of hope in the waking tragedy that is our life.” … For a few brief minutes every day somewhere in the world, my little Web page was helping to ease the pain of genocide.
From a piece featuring his lesbian sister: … when she came out to the family a few years ago, I was especially accepting.
The only issue that I had with this collection was that some of the prose was too dense and included too many obscure references. But since that’s part of the schtick, even though it’s occasionally sleep-inducing, it’s nothing really to complain about.
All in all, The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature is loaded with little LOLs, and anyone who enjoys satire should eat this up. 4.5 pearls rounded up to 5.
For Goodreads: For more reviews, check out The Comedic Novel Review at www.pearlsbeforeswine68.com which is also home to the Great White Host Blog.
March 31, 2021
I listened to this book on audiobook from my library. It will not only get my vote as worst book that I will probably read in 2021, but possibly the worst book I will read/listen to in my life. The screamed out “poetry” that ends the book is excruciating. It is a live performance, and he repeatedly refers to people walking out during the reading. This book is a ZERO, not a one. I couldn’t believe it was released.
December 12, 2018
Remember those awful ENG 102 anthologies from college? The ones assigned by sleepy, half-stoned TAs? The N.P.A.O.A.L (as the kids say) is the exact OPPOSITE of those old collections.
This book is absurdist humor at it's finest by the GREATEST LIVING AMERICAN WRITER.
This book is absurdist humor at it's finest by the GREATEST LIVING AMERICAN WRITER.
September 13, 2021
Funny, entertaining, satire at its best. He's a writer, but delivers the goods like a politician, covering his experiences with fiction. You almost believe him at times. I've got to re-read this collection of Pollack's writings. Just for the humor alone, it's worth it.
October 1, 2022
I particularly enjoyed “Introduction to the New Slavery.” Recommended by Simon Rich, and it’s easy to see parallels: very short stories, highly ironic, absurd scenarios, punchy, declarative sentences.
April 3, 2019
I found this hilarious when it first came out, and find it no less hilarious now. More so even?
December 27, 2015
It's hard for me to give an accurate assessment the Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature, since it is tied up with all kinds of emotional attachments for me. I avidly read Neal's blog back in the 2003-2004 era. I loved his ultra-conservative character he played, a sort of Stephen Colbert before Stephen Colbert. I also took a great deal of pride when Pollack named his new webpage The Maelstrom, using a term I had used in a letter I sent to him. To me, this is one of life's great accomplishments, though when I tell the story at parties, no one has the faintest clue when I'm talking about. Finally, I had previously purchased the audio CD of this book and was familiar with most of the stories already, so it was sort of weird to encounter them again in written form when I knew most of the jokes beforehand.
I remain a Neal Pollack believer. This is (in)famously the first book published by artsy-fartsy publishing house McSweeneys. Though it didn't set the world on fire, I still think it's a solid collection of humorous stories featuring Pollack's supremely self-confident alter-ego, America's Greatest Living Writer.
The obligatory disclaimer for all short story collections: some stories are better than others. Most of these are very short stories, keeping the joke from getting too stale. One example of the sort of joke that you'll encounter is when someone at a party tries to get a woman to sleep with him by pretending to be Nicholson Baker. If this is the kind of thing that strikes you as funny, there's a lot more where that came from. Maybe that's not the best example.
Anyways, it's a pretty specific brand of humor, but it works for me. Pollack is also hilarious on Twitter.
I remain a Neal Pollack believer. This is (in)famously the first book published by artsy-fartsy publishing house McSweeneys. Though it didn't set the world on fire, I still think it's a solid collection of humorous stories featuring Pollack's supremely self-confident alter-ego, America's Greatest Living Writer.
The obligatory disclaimer for all short story collections: some stories are better than others. Most of these are very short stories, keeping the joke from getting too stale. One example of the sort of joke that you'll encounter is when someone at a party tries to get a woman to sleep with him by pretending to be Nicholson Baker. If this is the kind of thing that strikes you as funny, there's a lot more where that came from. Maybe that's not the best example.
Anyways, it's a pretty specific brand of humor, but it works for me. Pollack is also hilarious on Twitter.
February 11, 2014
This book seems to either irritate or entertain readers - nothing in between. Call me entertained. Neal Pollack (meaning the voice of this book) is kind of a literary Stephen Colbert (meaning the TV character). Examples: his 1983 Sarah Lawrence commencement speech, "I Have Slept with 500 Women"; a transcript of his surprise appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show while she's interviewing Toni Morrison and Henry Louis Gates Jr. Oprah is thrilled, Toni Morrison giggles when he flirts with her (she even says "tee hee"), and HLG says he learned so much about being a black man by reading Pollack's essay, "I am friends with a working class black woman".
This is the kind of book you read a few pages at a time while you're waiting for water to boil. Maybe the irritated readers tried to read it all the way through.
This is the kind of book you read a few pages at a time while you're waiting for water to boil. Maybe the irritated readers tried to read it all the way through.
August 19, 2007
This book is one of the funniest books I've ever read. It came to me via my husband before he was my husband. You see, the title and cover (in Oprah's book club?) allude to the non-fact that it is Non-Fiction. Back in the day, my husband, straight from the wheat fields of Eastern Washington was quite shocked and offended that Pollack did some of the things he had said he did. (Like giving signed head shots to starving children in Afghanistan.) Alas, it even took me a few pages to find that this book is FICTION and there were no head shots even though there may have been starving Afghani children.
These are short stories that will make you laugh harder than Neo-cons at detainee torture conventions. You have to read this book.
These are short stories that will make you laugh harder than Neo-cons at detainee torture conventions. You have to read this book.
November 4, 2014
Hilarious concept, but one or two essays was enough to flesh it all out. The conceit is that Neal is a gonzo journalist along the lines of, well, the guy who encapsulated the term, and the likes of Hemingway et al. You know, those male writers who have extreme masculinity dripping off every page of their writing and need to tell you and show you how masculine they truly are with every sentence. Whose writing, no matter the subject, always ends up focusing on themselves. I definitely recommend picking it up for an essay or two, or to peruse at your leisure for a year or two, but if you try to read it all the way through in a matter of days or weeks, you'll likely quickly become tired of the persona Mr. Pollack embodies so well.
July 29, 2007
Very, very humorous. Pollack writes in first person as himself under the delusion that Pollack the character is the Greatest American Writer. Pretentious as hell and dreadfully unaware and ingenous, Pollack feigns compassion for the sake of purporting the image of being ... well, a human being. Pollack, the character, is an ingenius character because he is willing to drop the act and show that he is a scoundrel. A refreshing comment on the ridiculousness of literature, political correctness, celebrity, media and the ego that accompanies it all. Pollack, the author, does a fantastic job in being fantastic.
Read
June 23, 2015I'm not certain I'll ever actually read this through? But I went to see Neal Pollack at countless thingies in college, and I thought he was the best. I have basically zero contact with his new, bearded yoga-writing parenting-humor journalist self, but this book was written during the period in which he posed as a fake literary giant, The Greatest Living American Author, whom no one could resist. (This book includes a piece called, "Why Am I So Handsome?") The satire fit, in the Bush era. Helped, even.
August 16, 2008
exactly the kind of depth & gravitas you would expect from America's Greatest Living Writer. Neal Pollack's work nurtured the infant of my intellect into adulthood, sent it on its way into the world, nursed its many bumps, bruises & eye gouges, cared for it in its unpleasant declining years (loss of bowel control...not pretty) & finally laid its head on the satin pillow of its steel & chrome coffin & sealed it in concrete, deep beneath the surface of the earth. Salamé, old son.
July 26, 2011
A ball-bouncingly funny book, even for those with no particular interest in seeing the piss taken out of Sebastian Junger. For those who do share that interest (as I certainly do), Pollack's dead-pan, straight-faced recounting of his fictional adventures are the equivalent of comedy crack.
September 20, 2007
An extremely funny book written with unflinching hubris and bravado. Neal Pollack's exploits are truly legendary and not for the faint of heart. You should expect no less from the self-professed greatest living writer. Fine fine satire.
July 14, 2008
I alternated between laughing out loud and wanting to punch this snarky wanker in the throat. He's mostly just having fun, but the targets he chooses to skewer are pretty too easy. I far prefer Nevermind the Pollacks (not that those rock'n'roll targets are any harder to hit).
July 14, 2012
I had this book handed to me by my junior year English teacher who told me I would enjoy the humor, wit, and ridiculousness of it. It was a great diversion to high school and a fun ride in general. I definitely enjoyed the history implemented into Pollack's anthology. Great book all around.
March 29, 2007
neal pollack writes about neal pollack, the greatest living american writer, seduction artist, current affairs liver, maker and recorder. i can't believe how well this works.
July 17, 2007
one of my all time favorites.
August 9, 2007
Hilarious.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews