Zombie Spaceship Wasteland: A Book by Patton Oswalt [Hardcover]

Patton Oswalt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2011

Prepare yourself for a journey through the world of Patton Oswalt, one of the most creative, insightful, and hysterical voices on the entertain­ment scene today. Widely known for his roles in the films Big Fan and Ratatouille, as well as the television hit The King of Queens, Patton Oswalt—a staple of Comedy Central—has been amusing audiences for decades. Now, with Zombie Spaceship Wasteland, he offers a fascinating look into his most unusual, and lovable, mindscape.

Oswalt combines memoir with uproarious humor, from snow forts to Dungeons & Dragons to gifts from Grandma that had to be explained. He remem­bers his teen summers spent working in a movie Cineplex and his early years doing stand-up. Readers are also treated to several graphic elements, includ­ing a vampire tale for the rest of us and some greeting cards with a special touch. Then there’s the book’s centerpiece, which posits that before all young creative minds have anything to write about, they will home in on one of three story lines: zom­bies, spaceships, or wastelands.

Oswalt chose wastelands, and ever since he has been mining our society’s wasteland for perversion and excess, pop culture and fatty foods, indie rock and single-malt scotch. Zombie Spaceship Wasteland is an inventive account of the evolution of Patton Oswalt’s wildly insightful worldview, sure to indulge his legion of fans and lure many new admirers to his very entertaining “wasteland.”

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Comedian Oswalt (The King of Queens, Caprica) offers up a collection of colorful essays ranging in topic from his experiences working at a movie theater to sends-ups of eccentric relatives, including a grandmother who gives exceedingly odd birthday gifts. To delve into the book is to take a tour of Oswalt’s delightfully offbeat mind: he shares with readers what he was doing to procrastinate while writing certain chapters, suggests some truly morbid greeting cards, and parodies the vampire craze in comic-book form. The title is a reference to Oswalt’s theory that creative teens gravitate toward three subjects for their early stories: zombies, spaceships, or wastelands. Oswalt found himself drawn toward wastelands, a natural choice for a comedian who likes to poke fun at society. Oswalt is a wonderfully descriptive writer, vividly evoking his zombielike coworker at the theater, a grim Canadian comedy club, and the wanderings of his teen imagination with sharp, sardonic prose. --Kristine Huntley

Review

"Patton Oswalt...is one of those rare performers whose material translates into any medium without losing its sharpness--including, for the first time, print. . . . It is well worth it to join him on his odyssey."--Washington Post

“Sharp storytelling and sardonic wit.... Oswalt populates these stories with expertly drawn characters, and infuses them with a limitless supply of cultural references and deft turns of phrase.” —Boston Globe

“A thoughtful, hilarious, quasi-memoir that puts the standard-issue comedy-routine-in-book-form to shame.” —SPIN

“Patton Oswalt is one of those rare performers whose material translates into any medium without losing its sharpness—including, for the first time, print.... It is well worth it to join him on his odyssey.” —Washington Post

"A very funny book by the Funniest Man Alive." --GQ

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; First Edition edition (January 4, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439149089
• ISBN-13: 978-1439149089
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bland but well-written effort, January 12, 2011

By 

A. Tyma "deutschebag17" (jersey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Zombie Spaceship Wasteland: A Book by Patton Oswalt (Hardcover)

Patton Oswalt is a brilliant comedian. His intelligence has always shown through in his stand-up; not only will he insert references that shows he's well-read and well-versed in history, but they each have a narrative that flows well from the beginning of a bit to the end. His essays are much the same, and it's clear that the man can write.

Unfortunately, the material itself isn't quite up to snuff. One of the things that I've always loved about his stand-up is how he never seems to care what people think about him. He has a frenetic in-your-face delivery style that was married to such confident stage presence. If he sticks to stand-up, we'll be talking about him in the same breath as Bill Hicks and George Carlin down the road. His book, however, has this painfully self-conscious feeling to it. His writing style isn't nearly as crisp as his stand-up delivery. Granted, it's a function of the medium, but that doesn't explain all of it away. Much of this is auto-biographical which lends an almost tedious air to some of the stories, like you're hearing them from your boring, half-drunk uncle at a holiday party.

The best way to sum up this book is this: remember his bit about how he had to take a science class in college called "physics for poets" and he ceaselessly mocked the "head-in-the-clouds" mentality of the English majors? It sounds like one of those people wrote this instead of the short, angry man who yelled at the professor about an incorrect Star Trek reference on the test. I wasn't asking for 200 pages of his caustic wit (okay, I was), but I can't fathom how none of what makes him a brilliant stand-up comedian made it into this book.

But at least it wasn't about wedding deejays...

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great fun, I only wish it was longer., January 6, 2011

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J. Powlus (Reading, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Zombie Spaceship Wasteland: A Book by Patton Oswalt (Hardcover)

As said before, if you enjoy Patton's flavor of comedy, you'll almost certainly enjoy both the tone and content of this book.
It is not a book of jokes...but it is very funny. Patton is a very talented writer and does an excellent job of painting a picture of what was going on around him during some important and formative years of his life.
It is not a very long book. I was a bit disappointed at the short little line of dots on my Kindle. Given the quality of the content, however, I'm not disappointed in the book as a whole.
Speaking of the Kindle, the Kindle formatting of this book is...not great. I wish somebody would put a bit more effort into making sure there aren't any misplaced hard line breaks and such.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit disjointed, January 7, 2011

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Kenneth N. Bikoff - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Zombie Spaceship Wasteland: A Book by Patton Oswalt (Hardcover)

I love Patton's work, whether it be his standup or Reno 911! or his movies, but this book disappointed me. The stories of his life were interesting, but the presentation of a few other elements of the book -- the graphic part of it and the cards -- seemed odd and out of place. I know they pertained to his life, as well, but they didn't seem to fit other parts of the book. Is it worth a read? Sure, just for the life stories that are part of the equation. But not every piece seems to fit. Also, the graphic part of it was tough to read on a Kindle, although that's not Patton's fault, and the star rating doesn't have anything to do with that.