Customer Reviews

Cabin Pressure: One Man's Desperate Attempt to Recapture His Youth as a Camp Counselor

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book for my Dad for Father's Day and when it arrived just wanted to read the first page or so...and couldn't stop. It is really well written and although it's a cliche I really did laugh out loud while reading it. The perfect gift for any guy...which is why I am buying my Dad a new copy.

This was a very enjoyable book, easy to read (in a good way) and laugh out loud funny in a lot of spots. Josh Wolk has a great way with words and some of his quips are quite clever and extremely amusing. I have never been to summer camp, but that didn't stop me from appreciating this entertaining book. By the time the campers were being picked up by their parents at the end of the book, I actually realized I was going to miss some of these characters (even ADD Kid). Highly recommended.

I take that title from a Frank Black song, which I think is a pretty accurate way of describing the nervous step you take into full-fledged adulthood. "Cabin Pressure" details Josh Wolk's step.

I first took notice of Wolk through his terrific writing at "Entertainment Weekly." He wrote day-after commentary on the "Real World" that was so gut-bustingly hilarious my friends and I used to E-mail the highlights to each other. After a while, the writing was so good and the show so bad, we stopped watching the show and just read the wrap-ups.

Wolk's best skill as a writer is his gift of observation. Give him any scenario and he can instantly break it down, expose each player's motivation, and end it all with a hilarious analogy.

He brings that keen observation to "Cabin Pressure," his tale of heading back to camp as a counselor on the brink of his wedding day. Having remembered camp as a kind of innocent oasis, Josh wants to reexperience it one more time before he becomes, gulp, a husband and a father.

Wolk fills us in on summer-camp life -- what he remembered from his day, what has changed, and what hasn't. The best part of the book is Wolk's interaction with the kids in his cabin. He does an amazing job of letting you know each one, whether they are charming, maddening, or depressingly and prematurely stressed-out and miserable.

I don't necessarily think I bought into Josh's overall theme here -- this whole nostalgic innocence trip -- but it doesn't matter because "Cabin Pressure" is often hilarious and reading this book is like a well-spoken, really funny friend telling you his best summer-camp stories.

The tone can shift from body-odor humor to some strong emotional connections with the boys, and all the while Wolk's razor-sharp observation and pitch-perfect punchlines remain.

After reading Wolk in "Entertainment Weekly" all those years, and laughing my butt off, this book lives up to all of my expectations. Funny and insightful, "Cabin Pressure" is a wonderful debut book.

Even though it's been 35 years since the first time I was a counselor, every year around Fathers Day I have the urge to grab my sleeping bag and head up to camp for staff orientation. This book reminded me of why that urge is still so strong - why I spent six summers of my life as summer camp staff, working 14 hours a day most days and making less than I could have working a virtually anywhere else.

In the summer before he married and entered a new phase of life, the author chose to relive part of his childhood by becoming a camp counselor at the same camp he'd attended as an adolescent. Although older than the typical counselor and with a fiance waiting at home for him to finish his adventure, the authors experiences of feeling like he didn't quite fit in with the staff, his struggles with trying to stay upbeat after weeks of little sleep and hard physicial work and the silliness he shared with his campers mirror the experience of every counselor, whatever age. His story rang so true - although I worked at two coed YMCA camps rather than an all boys camp, the songs, jokes, activities and adolescent angst are universal.

For those who were campers, it's a window into the mysterious life that counselors led. For those of us who staffed camps, it's a sometimes funny, sometimes touching reminder of why we chose spend our summers without creature comforts of home, making little money while living with other people's children.

This is in many respects one of those universal stories that plays effectively on shared memories. It may have taken place in Maine, but the images that ran through my mind as I read it were of a Boy Scout camp in East Texas. Wish we could have ended each camp session in the Eastwind tradition, but it was not to be. Regardless, I'm in debt to Mr. Wolk for letting me return for one more season.

Reviewed by Vicky Burkholder
on 07/13/2008

Who has not been to summer camp, even if only for a day? And as an adult, who has not sat in his or her industrial beige/grey cubicle on a clear, beautiful summer day and wished they were once again that carefree youngster jumping into a frigid lake or pounding initials into a piece of leather?

Josh Wolk, a senior writer for Entertainment Weekly, decided to spend part of the summer before his wedding doing just that. He returned to his old haunt as a counselor, hoping to find his boyhood before stepping solidly into adulthood. His lighthearted look at the goings on at camp will keep you laughing. But, just as in life, all is not high-jinks and pratfalls. He is looking back at this from the perspective of twenty years beyond most of the people there. But he gives even the serious stuff a humorous edge.

If you've ever been to summer camp, or even if you haven't, you'll enjoy this book. It's both funny and nostalgic, a perfect blend of entertainment. So grab your gorp and bug juice and come along for the ride. You'll be glad you did.

I am never at all sure why I like reading camp books. I hated the actual camp experience, due to overwhelming homesickness and general dislike of being in groups! But I love reading about camp, and this is probably the best book about it I've ever read. Josh Wolk spends the summer before getting married working as a counselor at the camp he attended for many summers as a boy. The best part of this book is that it really doesn't romantize the experience. Josh feels like a misfit much of the time, the 14 year old boys in his cabin can be very, very hard to deal with, the other counselor in the cabin doesn't pull his weight at all...but still, he has many moments of remembering what he loves about the camp. It sounds like a great camp. I have 13 and 10 year old boys, and I wish now that overnight camp wasn't out of our price range, as it sounds like it could be a wonderful experience.

I hope Wolk writes more books. I'd love to hear about his life as a parent, as he seems like someone with real insights.

Be prepared. While reading this, you may forget to change your kid's diaper. Maybe you'll play the Salt Game and bet your husband a beer that he can't compete. And if your husband steals your copy of Cabin Pressure and then attempts to give you a wibble, you'll know that you're not entirely lost. That's the point: learning to be a kid imparts wisdom and confidence and a sense of humor that many adults so desperately need. And that's why Cabin Pressure is the perfect summer read. It's a reminder of the more important things that, growing up, we may have lost along the way.

Plus, the dialouge is fantastic and, truth be told, I discovered great comebacks and conversation pieces to entertain my in-laws and the kids next door that ring our doorbell and run.

NOTE: If you're one of those parents that barks orders from baseball bleachers and demands anti-bacterial soap at all times, your kid's therapist might just give you this book. Read immediately. Learn and laugh.

I too am a Josh Wolk fan from reading his EW work. This book is a great read for everyone who is nostalgic about youth, loves summer camp, entering his/her thirties or who just likes to laugh! I recommend this book highly.

My mom bought me this book a week before i left for my own summer camp and after i read the first page i found it impossible to stop. The word nostalgic is a perfect adj. to define this book. As i flipped through the pages I got more and more excited about my upcoming camp experience and started to remember all the old times i had at my camp. I recommend this book to any one because anyone can read it and enjoy it. I found myself laughing and cracking a smile numerous times during my reading and I know other readers will too.