Full disclosure: I know Jeremiah Smallchild (aka Wilson Hall) quite well, as well as his parents who are good friends. I am also an 80 year old grandfather. So I promptly ordered two books because of my connection to "Jeremiah" and because I have a couple of teen age grandsons whom I thought would like the book. I have only seen God's Pottery perform once while they were on NBC's Last Comic Standing series. They are very funny. Now having said all that here is my unbiased review, except that this is "a guide to surviving your teens" and I'm now surviving old age. Judging the book for its intended audience is a bit tricky.
First of all the book is very funny in lots of places, outrageous in some places, and in one or two perhaps subtle spots I winced at some lines that seemed out of bounds or uncalled for. Nothing very damaging. As I read the book I had to pause to read passages aloud for my wife that I sometimes couldn't complete because I was laughing so hard and so was she. Keep in mind I am reading the book in the first place to satisfy myself that it is OK to give to our teen grandsons. So I have to tell you that these guys are in a class with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert when it comes to satire. And frankly, I cannot judge how my teen grandsons will respond to this sort of humor. My out will be to send the book to their parents to check it out for themselves before passing it along.
For me the funniest chapter was on "pubescence" and the "dating" chapter was a close second. I laughed tears in many places. Here is a sample: Throughout there are faux letters written to Gideon and Jeremiah from faux teens. There is one from 14 year old Brad who confesses that all he can think about is SEX. He writes, "I was watching our lunch lady stuff all these hot dogs in their buns, and then my Downstairs Area began to get tingly and warm, and then...well, I had to 'go to the bathroom.' if you know what I mean. And I've been choosing to 'go to the bathroom' about four or five times a day! I'm so ashamed. Please tell me how to be a better person." G&J respond with a convoluted explanation as to how the hot dog buns could have prompted such thoughts (very funny) and they conclude this way: "Yet even though your mind brought you to the brink of sexual action, you are to be commended, Brad Washburn, for not acting on the impulse! Going to the bathroom four to five times a day is perfectly normal, and it sounds like a good way for you to get your mind off of the dirty stuff. We recommend that you keep going to the bathroom as often as you want." OK, this is not only marvelous dead pan humor but a very subtle way to give teen age boys permission to masturbate without feeling guilty about it. I wish I could have learned that when I was in my teens. The book is replete with this kind of "advice". Will a teen "get it"? Quite possibly in an educated and reasonably "liberal" family system they probably will.
On a more personal note, the chapter on dating spoke beautifully and hilariously to the most memorable agonies of my adolescence, the anxiety that accompanies asking a girl for a date. Throughout the book they provide examples of "conversations" between people to illustrate how to handle certain situations. There is one for asking a girl for a date and it is gut busting funny.
Each chapter concludes with a section "For the Parents". In the introduction to the book the teen readers are warned darkly in no uncertain terms that they are to refrain from reading those sections. Fat chance. But the parents shouldn't miss these gems. Here you will find some satire that is totally outrageous, unless you "get it". For example, in the chapter dealing with accepting your parents as friends and supporters, albeit with absolute authority to tell the teen what he or she must do, the parent's section deals with the one problem parents will have with invoking their absolute authority, which is the presence of grandparents who will promptly undermine them. The solution to this problem is to insure that the parents keep grandparents away from the house at all times, limiting their teens just to occasional visits to the nursing home when the grandparents are near death.
"God's Pottery", by their own subtle reference buried in a line in the book, are a "fake Christian" rock team doing a fake mission of saving people for Jesus. Jesus is referred to often as a model for teens, a regular guy who just happened to have died, waited three days, and then rose again. Face it, there is a heavy dose of satire for the fundamentalist family values crowd in this book. While I think the subversion this book would provide for that sort of fundamentalist right wing morality could maybe "save" some of those teens from worse problems down the road, this is clearly not the niche for this book. Are they subversive of religion in general and Christianity in particular? Only if your brand of Christianity gets your knickers in a twist at any satirical word play with Christian orthodoxy. Yes, for some there is blasphemy to be found, but as a Christian myself in the church in which "Jeremiah" grew up, the references to Jesus throughout can pass the test of the core of the Gospel without a heavy hammer of evangelism.
I have to say this is a really remarkable book, possibly unlike anything that's ever been written as a guidebook for getting through adolescence. For one thing it is extremely (I use the word advisedly) sophisticated. It has to be read and understood as humorous satire first, something a smart teen will enjoy like they enjoy sophisticated comic books such as Calvin and Hobbes and Peanuts. So that leaves the question of whether there is any good advice in here for the teens. In a quirky way, I pondered the theme of chastity/virginity that is pushed throughout, albeit in a good natured way. It is hard to argue against virginity before marriage as the best way to insure against the curse of an unwanted pregnancy. They don't provide any satirical loopholes for this admonition so I take them as serious on this. They never discuss "safe sex". They take a number of opportunities to poke satirical fun at the danger of believing in the THEORY of Evolution and for parents who "worry about the Godless curriculum" in schools they offer the possible solution of "HOMESCHOOLING". Among the values of home schooling are that their children will "bypass" all the bad advice from peers and "just learn how to become young adults from you." And "Best of all, you never have to say good-bye to them again. Summer/winter, morning/afternoon/night...they are always there with you. What a joy!"
And so it goes. Is this just a book of teen humor for teens, or adult humor about teen life for adults/parents, or serious advice and good information for teens delivered in a humorous satirical mode intended to be "hip" to the teen argot and culture? Whatever its intentions are, the GP's have written a very high quality satirical advice book for teens who appreciate satire and will probably get some good laughs along the way, will hopefully want to read a passage to their parents, and just might get some good things to think about with regard to their decision making while negotiating the terrifying and exciting teen years.
I might also note that the tipoff to the humor quality and "frame" of this book comes from the cover statement of Janeane Garofalo: "This book really opened my eyes to many of today's hot issues. Who knew the Theory of Evolution had so many holes?" Garofalo has to be every progressive's favorite comedian.
