Flashbang: How I Got Over Myself [Paperback]

Mark Steele (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2005

Mark Steele found himself trying to be a good Christian, but felt he wasn’t making any permanent difference. His life was turning into a flashbang — something that makes a lot of noise but leaves no permanent indentation. In this hilarious memoir, Steele gives autobiographical accounts of enduring 40 days of facial paralysis, suffering public embarrassment at a Presidential Inauguration, receiving treatments of shock therapy from a first-timer and giving blood in a Mexican hospital. Each story brings Steele closer to the realization that being a Christian is more than just saying you are. In the end, he reveals his secret to living a more meaningful life—how he got over himself.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mark Steele is the president and executive creative of Steelehouse Productions where he creates art for business and ministry through the mediums of film, stage and animation. He has produced and directed some of the largest live youth events in the nation. He lives in Oklahoma with his wife, Kaysie, and their greatest productions: Morgan, Jackson and Charlie. Mark welcomes your feedback at [e-mail].

Product Details

• Paperback: 247 pages
• Publisher: Relevant Books (July 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976035723
• ISBN-13: 978-0976035725
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,187,517 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So personal - it's almost like I wrote it myself., August 5, 2005

By 

M. Steele (Tulsa, OK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Flashbang: How I Got Over Myself (Paperback)

Flashbang is that rare narrative that seems to be plucked directly from our own experiences. As I read of Mark Steele's facial paralysis, his Mexican hospital diatribe, his Presidential Inauguration fiasco -- it was almost as if those things had happened to me. The pain was my pain, voice was my voice, adverbs were my adverbs, fingers-holding-the-book my fingers. Flashbang is a deeply vicarious experience. Especially if you are the author.

The downside: I already knew all the jokes.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarity, Substance, and Bodily Fluids, August 3, 2005

By 

Jason Boyett (Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Flashbang: How I Got Over Myself (Paperback)

The first thing you need to realize about this book is that it is completely different from anything you've read before. Mark Steele is flat-out funny. Guy can tell a story -- most of which involve personal humiliation (in the first chapter, he hilariously discovers he is a "vomit savant," puking with remarkable distance and accuracy) -- with the same self-deprecation and easy humor as any of today's great comic memoirists, including Eggers, Sedaris, and the like. This isn't the kind of book you want to read in public, simply because its unintentional laugh/snort/cringe potential is so high. I don't know anyone who has had so many weird, painful, debasing things happen to him. (Other than the cast of Jackass, but that was by choice.)

But unlike other members of the pomo memoir brat pack, Steele uses these crazy stories as fodder for bigger spiritual truths, like how the flashy stuff we try to be on the outside (the "flashbang") is usually just a bunch of sound and fury signifying nothing. It gets in the way of real, authentic faith -- the kind of spiritual life that actually DOES make a mark on the world around us. Flashbang, as a memoir, is immensely entertaining, but there's a point to the entertainment. There's a spine to the humor, and what you take away from it is infinitely more meaningful than the few enjoyable hours you'll spend reading it. And I'd much rather learn these truths vicariously through Mark Steele, because experiencing this stuff myself? Sheesh. I'd never leave the house again.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laughing out loud!, August 3, 2005

By 

Joan Buzzard (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Flashbang: How I Got Over Myself (Paperback)

It's been a long time since I read something that made me laugh out loud like this book did. The word choices, writing style and phrases just cracked me up....hilarious. The stories Mark Steele writes just pull you in to these funny experiences he's had. He then amidst these random, wild events creates such meaning and honest points about growing in the Christian life. His style paves the way for insights and truths that make an authentic impact. I read it in just two days, with a very busy schedule of work and family because I couldn't wait to read the next story he would tell and could never quite put it down in the middle of one. I am sharing it with my two sons and a bunch of friends. As a marriage and family therapist I highly recommend this book for the sheer fun of reading it as well as the impact it makes.
Looking forward to the next book Mark Steele writes. Joan Buzzard (California)