9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
One Trick Pony, July 6, 2008
The Dead Guy Interviews is based on the intriguing premise that forty-five of history's greatest, and most interesting, people can be summoned back to life long enough to sit for an interview with the author. The theory goes that Michael Stusser will ask the hard questions, questions that would have in some cases probably gotten him killed if he had dared to ask them during the actual lifetimes of his subjects. Stusser will combine insightful questions and humor in his interviews in a way that will provide the reader with forty-five painless little history lessons. So much for the theory, because in reality, this hit-and-miss book is more miss than hit.
Stusser interviews Beethoven, Napoleon, Churchill, Einstein, Darwin, Freud, Hoover, Poe, Mae West, Wilde, Crazy Horse, Washington, Lincoln, Julius Caesar, Buddha and thirty others. Each interview runs five or six pages and is introduced by a one-page biography of the person being interviewed. The interviews seldom fail to offer at least one or two lesser known, but intriguing, historical facts about their subjects but so many of the questions are phrased in such a sophomoric style of humor that the facts are soon overwhelmed by the silliness. And because Stusser sometimes has his historical figures respond in the same tone in which the questions are asked, many of them seem to have the same personality regardless of what they accomplished in life or in what era they lived. After a while it starts to seem that everyone who comes back to life does so with the personality of Don Rickles.
Although many, if not most, of the interviews stress the sex lives of those answering the questions, with Stusser seeming to take particular delight in pointing out how many great figures of history were either homosexual or bisexual, some of the conversations do serve as good capsule histories. Unfortunately, because of the numerous sex jokes and the constant trading of insults between interviewer and interviewee, those conversations do not happen as often as they could have.
More typical is the way that the interviewer begins his session with Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.
Michael Stusser: Gotta ask about the facial hair. Why not trim up the old mono-brow and wax the `stache, you know?
Frida Kahlo: Yes, I now see this is going to be like sitting with a pig for an hour. Why don't you shave your back?
But along the way we are reminded of Beethoven's deafness, that Mozart may have suffered from Tourette's syndrome, that only seven of Emily Dickinson's poems were published in her lifetime, and we learn how Harry Houdini (and Siegfried and Roy) made an elephant disappear on stage. Stusser provides the kind of historical trivia that puts a human face on history's legends but the book is ultimately less a history lesson than it is a book filled with jokes written at the expense of those legends.
[...]
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Dead Guy Interviews : A "Must Read!!", September 26, 2007
This review is from: The Dead Guy Interviews: Conversations with 45 of the Most Accomplished, Notorious, and Deceased Personalities in History (Paperback)
Hilarious and informative! This book was not only a great read for a history buff like myself, but also really useful to me in the classroom as a high school history teacher!
First, I loved the compact bios before each interview. They refreshed my memory on each figure while including things I never knew. Impressive research work! The interviews themselves are witty, creative, fast-paced, sometimes irreverant, and full of contemporary references and humor.
As an educator who teaches about famous dead guys/gals everyday, this book is a godsend. I've already used three interviews in the classroom with great success! Students are drawn in and hooked by Mr. Stusser's ascerbic humor and engaging interview style. Then, they become fascinated with the person being interviewed and their personalities. They actually have asked to read more of the interviews. Yes, high school students asking to read more history!
A quick and entertaining read with each interview leaving you saying 'oh, just one more' and then you're done! I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in historical figures but are repelled by dry biographies and endless historical tomes. Michael Stusser's interviews are fun and refreshing!
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dead Guy Interviews--History the fun way!!, September 28, 2007
This review is from: The Dead Guy Interviews: Conversations with 45 of the Most Accomplished, Notorious, and Deceased Personalities in History (Paperback)
The idea for this book is one of those concepts you wonder why no one ever thought of before. Michael Stusser not only thought of it - but he pulled the whole thing off splendidly with his gritty and sassy journalistic style! Both hilarious and educational, The Dead Guy Interviews has 45 interviews with famous icons of the past we've heard of - but never had the chance to meet in person; from Alexander the Great to Oscar Wilde, and many in between. Have you ever wanted to sit face to face with Sigmund Freud and have him spill his guts? How about grilling Napoleon or getting to the bottom of Frida Kahlo's genius? Well, Stusser does it for you. By exposing historical rumors and monumental truths straight from the dead guy's mouths, the book had me intrigued and laughing out loud on every page! Highly recommended for anyone who loves history, biographies, or just plain crack-up humor.
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