Customer Reviews

Dating Your Mom

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

 

 

In between some failed pieces and some merely funny ones, there are some works of mind-melting satire. Throw in a viscious vision of pretention at all levels of society, and you've got Frazier at work. "The Death of Bob's Bob House" was one of the strangest and funniest things I have read in quite some time. He does not always connect, but when he does, Frazier can smack that puppy out of the ballpark.

Ian Frazier's "Dating Your Mom," despite its rather disturbing title, is an unparalleled collection of the author's early writings, most or all of which appeared in "The New Yorker." The book reels from essays reviewing the Bloomsbury Group's appearance at the Apollo Theatre to the delightful speculation on what kind of an airline pilot Samuel Beckett would have been. Although Frazier stumbles occasionally--one or two of the essays are rather banal--the overall effect is superb.

Frazier is a brilliant stylist and the ideas behind his pieces are equally brilliant. I was thinking this morning that perhaps "Dating Your Mom" (the title piece itself) is making a point about the banality of evil in self-help books--that is, saying that self-help books encourage you to look out for number one without noticing what the cost may be, as epitomized by the earnest advice that one should date one's mom, perhaps the greatest taboo in Western culture.

Or maybe not. But the essays made me SCREAM with laughter and I used to re-read them every six months, dreaming that I might ever find something so funny again. "You've really kept your figure Mom, and don't think I haven't noticed." Perfection.

This is a collection of short humorous pieces and in my view there is not a dud in here, although my favorite essay is the one about what happened to his Greenwich Village apartment after it fell to the North Vietnamese. I've loaned and given this book to upwards of a dozen friends and every single one has come back to me raving about how hilarious it was. I consider this book to be right in the mainstream of the magnificent New Yorker humor tradition, and I'd recommend it to almost anyone. Having said that, looking at the various one-star reviews on this page, I have to say that I would NOT recommend it to the excessively literal-minded.

The reviews I read for this book described it as funny and quirky. It was neither. The book is very short and is made up of essays that average 3 pages long--it doesn't have much meat to it. And I found the essays dense, hard to get through, and most of all, not funny. If you want to read a book of humorous essays, read David Sedaris. If you've already read David Sedaris, read him again. This book is a good one to miss.

This has to be one of the funniest things I have read in recent history. Although there are a few pieces in the book, such as "Bob's Bob House" and "How I Did It" that sorta flopped on the ground like a beached tuna, the essays that worked were hysterical. I lost most of my tea reading most of the essays. (I think this book has absorbed more tea than I have.) A must for any lover of bizarre humour.

Often brilliant, exceptionally funny, pieces.

Frazier never fails to make me laugh. The title is unfortunate, but the humor in this book is priceless!

As it turns out, this book has absolutely nothing to do with ways to date your mother. Caveat emptor, I guess. Sadly, there aren't many such books available anymore. The days of the short story/essay style humorist appear to be fading in the glare of TV humor (from Letterman to Leno to C-SPAN), making books like Ian Frazier's "Dating Your Mom," Christopher Buckley's "Wry Martinis," and Doug Hecox's "Star Spangled Banter" or "Graze Expectations" all the more valuable.

For more recommendations on contemporary humorous literature, visit www.dougfun.com!

Remember the guiy in high-school that never seemed to ever wash his hair, talk to anyone, or attend any school events, and was always smoking who-knows-what? If it was a comedy high-school, this is what he would have written (and it was edited by the guy that always sat in the courtyard playing chess by himself). Of the 15 essays I read (and I had trouble forcing myself to get past the first paragraph on any of them), only one was remotely funny. And, his title essay, "Dating your Mom", is too incestuous to be even remotely funny.