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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
I have bigger crime waves when crossing the street, March 18, 2007
This review is from: You Can Get Arrested for That: 2 Guys, 25 Dumb Laws, 1 Absurd American Crime Spree (Paperback)
This book is a case and point regarding the problems of selling a book idea before a word of it has been written (or before the event that is supposed to inspire the book has even happened). Rich Smith recounts in this book the process of scoring the book deal itself, and the instant interest and publicity he got for the concept, regardless of the fact that he had nothing at that point than to suggest that he go to America and break ridiculous laws. Perhaps this was to show some of the general dislike of America abroad, or the general consensus that America needs to be brought down a notch or two, which becomes apparent when many other countries relish in the absurdities of America.
But because the trip itself can probably be termed, in the truest sense of the word, "a bust," and Rich and his traveling mate spend more time trying to find ways to actually violate these laws (albeit, in often secretive and cowardly manners, with little attempt to make any public announcement of their ectivities to see if any authorities would actually stand behind their antiquated or absurd regulations) rather than spend much of any time in actual transgression, and so a lot of the book feels like a lot of padding. If this concept and execution were so sound to write a full book about, what would be the need of spending 50 pages or so of the beginning to detail how the idea came about or the book deal itself nailed?
The answer is simple: it is BECAUSE the trip itself turns out to be diappointing and with little insight that the book has to be padded with a lot of this tangential information. Rather than start the book with a concise mention of Balderdash and the book's inspiring moment, the author takes us through an elongated recounting of the final round of the game in question--in short, the book's effort feels like the work of a high school sophomore trying to make a 500 word essay fill up the required 1500 by the teacher, an effort that usually ends up with a lot of meaningless description and a lot of getting to the obvious.
Rather than just skulk about and hope someone noticed their law-breaking, the author could have served his purpose much more directly by making his actions far more public, as I had mentioned before, and see if his chosen townships or state authorities would have stood behind their statutes. Instead, the author, when actually able to find a way to break the law, does so like a member of Jackass--waiting for someone to notice. In the end, this book comes across as a similarly puerile attempt at a little attention.
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10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
It's not the money I spent that I object to losing..., October 6, 2006
This review is from: You Can Get Arrested for That: 2 Guys, 25 Dumb Laws, 1 Absurd American Crime Spree (Paperback)
It's the time I spent reading and reading this, looking for something intriguing in this book.
I'll save you the time. There isn't. Frankly, the author and his friend come off as a pair of yobbos who don't even rise to the level of whatever the British equivalent of "Ugly American" is. Instead? They're just laddish road-trip enthusiasts. Big deal. If Smith's trip were related with some verve, or back-story, or, well...anything, it could have been a great story. Instead, it plods on, with them sneering at things around them (why is never revealed), and "breaking" silly laws- but all told without humor, wit, charm or insight. It's an insipid book, with insipid writing. I kept thinking of all the trees that'd died for the printing, all the ink spilled, and all for nothing. Save your money on this one. Buy Moore's "Frost on My Moustache", or Bryson's "Walk In The Woods", or just read your local telephone book as you'll be better entertained. Sophomoric would have been fine, really-but this is worse, it's Dull.
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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Unique Way of Looking at America, October 23, 2006
This review is from: You Can Get Arrested for That: 2 Guys, 25 Dumb Laws, 1 Absurd American Crime Spree (Paperback)
Foreigners have come to America for the deliberate purpose of breaking our laws. It isn't that they hate our freedom or that they wish to imperil us or to enrich themselves at our expense. They just want to break laws for the fun of it. At least, that's the motivation for Englishman Rich Smith, who with his chum Luke Bateman, came to our shores for the express purpose of breaking 25 of our silliest laws, all for a lark. And also, one assumes, for a book deal. In _You Can Get Arrested for That: 2 Guys, 25 Dumb Laws, 1 Absurd American Crime Spree_ (Three Rivers Press), Smith has detailed his life of crime. Actually, it was only a summer of crime, for Smith confesses, "I am not a man with a criminal history and, by nature, am a law-abiding citizen... before the journey I made to write this book, the only criminal act I had ever committed was a speeding offense on the 18th of December, 2001." For this, he was convicted and fined 60 pounds in Plymouth. Otherwise, he has been conviction-free, although he admits that he could be accused of less criminal offenses such as silliness. And before any Americans could catch him and convict him of, say, kissing for longer than five minutes (illegal in Iowa), he had fled home, only to write this taunt of a book to make us feel foolish.
There is bound to be a story behind the law of Atlanta, Georgia, that says you must never tie your giraffe to a street lamp or telephone pole (this is not one of the laws he attempts to break), but the story is not here. Smith tries to find explanations for some of the laws, but never succeeds. The pair failed in their attempt to ride a bike in a swimming pool, which is illegal in Baldwin Park, a suburb of Los Angeles. Hiring a bike would have been easy, but Baldwin Park had no hotel swimming pools, only a public one, with staff that would have prevented any unauthorized pool toys. In Tennessee, it will not do just to try to catch fish with a lasso, which is not illegal; you actually have to catch one, which is illegal. It is also impossible, without the hook attachment Smith designed for his lasso fishing tackle; impossible, also, it turns out, with such an attachment. He was, however, able illegally to fish in his pajamas in Chicago. In South Dakota, he was unable to find any cheese factory that would allow him to sleep in it, but he successfully broke the law in Pittsburgh that prohibits anyone from sleeping on top of a refrigerator.
Smith aims to be a primary teacher one day, and before resorting to crime, he had worked at a school whose students he had promised to keep up to date of his exploits by e-mail. The questions came back to him: "How are you going to get a giraffe?" "Do you know where the cheese factory you're going to fall asleep in is?" or "Have you found a bike and a swimming pool yet?" But the most important question of the lot was: "When are you going to stop being silly?" Smith says, "I've yet to get back to them on that one." It's a good thing he didn't stop the silliness before his personal crime wave, or before writing this silly, breezy book, as entertaining a look by an Englishman at his American cousins as you are likely to find.
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