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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A funny, tender, and mildly disturbing memoir, September 21, 2009
This review is from: House of Cards: Love, Faith, and Other Social Expressions (Hardcover)
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For a 28-year-old man, ex-fundamentalist David Ellis Dickerson has remarkably little life experience. After getting his master's degree, he's only ever worked at one job, as a clerk at a government agency. He got engaged to the first woman he ever dated. Worst of all, he's a virgin. What he's good at, and loves doing, is writing word puzzles and funny poems. When he gets the chance to work at the Hallmark greeting card company, he thinks he's found the perfect job. So he moves hundreds of miles away from his family and fiancee and, for the first time in his life, tries to fit in in the corporate world. You can pretty much guess what happens next. Between his own quirkiness and the vagaries of corporate culture, David has a tough time at Hallmark. He does make some good friends. He also alienates several bosses and has an excruciatingly hard time figuring out the unwritten rules at his new workplace. This is a well-written, cleverly observed, and very funny book. I also found it mildly disturbing, because I think Dickerson sometimes reveals more about himself than he realizes. It's still not clear to me, for instance, that he understands how deep the divide was between his own "romantic" but essentially self-centered fantasies about his relationship and his fiancee's actual needs and desires. And it takes the poor guy forever to figure out that some of his perfectly innocent habits are annoying the crap out of his patient but uncommunicative coworkers. At many points in the book, I felt simultaneously sympathetic and incredibly irritated with him. Ultimately, though, I think Dickerson's perhaps unintentionally unsparing portrait of himself is what makes this such a good book. This was a one-day read for me; I picked it up and almost literally didn't put it down until I finished it. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys funny memoirs about quirky people.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An exceptionally well-written and quirky memoir, September 25, 2009
This review is from: House of Cards: Love, Faith, and Other Social Expressions (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This book is an entertaining memoir about an eccentric yet likeable dude. As you can probably glean from the title, the great majority of this book is focused on David Ellis Dickerson's time as a Hallmark employee in his late 20s. He details the various jobs he held there, the great friends he met, the crazy bosses he answered to, his relationships, and his lessons of growth and self-discovery. When I read the description of this book, I was skeptical: "Wait, he is (or was?) an evangelical Christian? But he's a regular contributor to NPR? And he's funny? AND he got his doctorate at FSU, my alma mater? Hmm... this could be interesting." It turned out to be a great read. Without including any spoilers in this review, it's important to note that Dickerson, despite his intensely religious upbringing, is now a modern liberal man: highly educated, critical of fundamentalism, strongly feminist, and an LGBTQ ally. (I personally breathed a sigh of relief upon discovering this information, but it might be off-putting to some readers.) Apparently, many people find Dickerson insufferable because, as a true academic, he tends to "inform people against their will." However, I found him to be earnest and endearing; you can't help but identify with at least some little part of him. The first 50-60 pages of the book are a little slow, but then it picks right up, and from that point I couldn't put it down! Dickerson is an extremely gifted writer, poet, puzzle-maker -- a veritable wordsmithing genius -- with a staggering lexicon and impeccable grammar. It's truly a joy to read such high-quality writing. He includes many original poems, cartoons, letters, and greeting card text. Even at a solid 370 pages, this memoir was surprisingly easy to get through because Dickerson's writing is superb, and the story itself is engaging and suspenseful. During one chapter in the middle, Dickerson takes the reader through the actual process of writing a greeting card. It's fascinating and highly entertaining to read his different brainstorms, watch where he takes these ideas, and then see how the final card ends up. Although the author begins his journey as a virgin and an evangelical Christian, there is surprisingly quite a bit of sex as well as theorizing about the act (including what some might consider graphic language) in this memoir. Some readers may feel that Dickerson is oversharing; however, he truly wears his heart on his sleeve, and to not include such intimate details would be to create an incomplete picture of himself and his life at that time. Those who dislike reading descriptions of various sex acts, profanity, the occasional liberal rant, and serious (if infrequent) criticism of fundamentalism -- peppered intermittently with a poem in flawless iambic pentameter -- probably would not enjoy this book. However, if those elements sound like they would make for a great read, then you won't be disappointed! I highly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys funny, slightly eccentric, well-written memoirs.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Funny, with a chance of meatballs, September 20, 2009
This review is from: House of Cards: Love, Faith, and Other Social Expressions (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Picture yourself choosing a birthday card. Imagine that you're roaming the racks and picking up one card after another. You browse the humor section, the religious section; you see photos, cartoons, all sorts of cards. Some make noise or have moving parts, or are die-cut. But on this imagined shopping trip, what if they all had the same sentiment inside? Reading House of Cards: Love, Faith, and Other Social Expressions was a bit like that for me. Some parts made me reach out eager to pick them up and be entertained. Yes, great intro, then flip it open and ... oh my goodness, more of the same. Author David Ellis Dickerson is a very funny guy, and his wordplay is to die for. I thoroughly enjoyed his verses and cryptic crossword work. Dickerson landed what seemed like the perfect job for his talents: writing for Hallmark Cards. I would have appreciated a clearer look at the systems and processes of Hallmark--and possibly more about his avocation as a puzzle-maker. Dickerson, though, is like the nerdy kid who throws himself in front of the camera every time, making monster faces. Granted, House of Cards is a memoir so by definition it's ABOUT him, but ... maybe he's a bit too invested in being annoying, to the detriment of this book. Dickerson was raised as a fundamentalist Christian and converted to Catholicism as an adult. At twenty-seven he was a virgin, he and his fiancee having decided to "just say no" until they married. He plays the humor card repeatedly in telling this part of the story, and frankly, it was just TMI for me. It contributes heavily, as you might imagine, to his sense of stress and dislocation in the Hallmark job. The focus on his sex life, and what seemed like ridicule of himself and the systems and staff of Hallmark, got in the way of my full enjoyment. Dickerson, an NPR contributor, is brilliant and funny and there's lots to enjoy here. I'm hoping that his next book is just as brilliant and funny but with less self-deprecation. For me, three stars with the promise of a sunnier day next time. Linda Bulger, 2009
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