Customer Reviews

Zombie Spaceship Wasteland: A Book by Patton Oswalt

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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...

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.

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.

When I'd heard Patton Oswalt was coming out with a book, I was truly excited. I'm a big fan of the guy's stand-up, and just assumed he'd bring the same sort of geek-centric humor to the page. Sadly this hodgepodge of depressing reminiscences, elitist posturing (most glaringly represented by his countless references to bands like Fugazi - the music geek's Citizen Kane in that all proclaim their greatness yet so very few have actually even listened to a single song by the band), and ill-conceived philosophical rantings. What I expected to be a fun read proved to be one of the few books I've read this year that I couldn't even be bothered to finish.

I really like Patton oswalt but this book was not that great. I thought it was going to be a funny memoir and half of it was. The problem was that the other half was brutally terrible.

You know the feeling you get when someone says a non sequitur, and you're trying to figure out if it's a joke? I had that feeling while reading (ok, skimming) this whole book. I admit the titular "Zombie Spaceship Wasteland" chapter was a clever analysis of geek teenage life. But the rest of it just felt like a big waste of time. Maybe his material just doesn't translate well to the printed page, or maybe I just needed a few more drinks.

In the last few years, a number of comics I respect and whose humor I laugh at have put out books: Steve Martin, Sarah Silverman, Russell Brand, and recently Tina Fey. These four comics wrote a book that was something like the title of an Al Franken book: The truth with jokes. They basically recounted growing up in a way that was funny but had to be funny because of who they became (or maybe not funny, per se, but something that messed them up but still made them smart and curious with a twisted view of the world). These are all good books that are enjoyable.

Oswalt, who is a very funny man on stage and interviews, writes a book that is not like that. This book is not like that. We get some of the autobiography in stories about the movie theatre he worked at and his experience in his first headlining gig in Canada. These are more like riffs or essays (and one comic strip about vampires) that loosely adhere to the titular theme. I did smile and laugh while I was reading them, but the book as a whole feels somewhat slapped-together. It was like he just pulled various things that were sitting on his hard drive and threw some introductory material in front of the different word files. There's just no coherency, which isn't a bad thing if you need a bathroom reader, but it is glaring on a straight read-through. The funny thing ("funny" odd) is that in spite of that criticism, the worst thing about the book is that it is too short - it isn't half bad, but it could have been half better.

This book is a lot of stream of consciousness thinking, abstract ideas, and some entries that probably only have meaning to the author, anchored at times by occasionally witty, observant, and interesting recollections on portions of his life. I only laughed out loud once reading the book (paper boy/lawn/nuff said), and had hoped for many more laughs from who I consider to be a talented comedian. There were a few amusing moments and some of his life recollections, specifically this uncle he had who sat on a porch all day, and his early stand-up experiences in Canada I enjoyed reading about. The problem is that there was just too much of the 'what the ?' material to sift through to find something the reader could settle in and really enjoy. Worth reading once? Sure, but be prepared to skip some chapters. I hope he writes again one day, more focused.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but it was tough.

The book isn't a coherent story like comedian Mike Birbiglia's book, it's more a collection of random pieces -- everything from mock greeting cards (actually, hilarious) to stories about L.A. to concepts like "Zombie, Spaceship, Wasteland". I don't always object to such disjointed material -- it's part of what makes Patton's stand-up so entertaining -- but in book form it doesn't work as well.

The book felt thrown together. As if Patton's agent felt it was time the comedian branched out into a new medium and Patton simply collected random musings from his journal. The material sometimes reminds you of his irreverent stand-up, but it's really uneven. Sometimes the pieces just fall flat.

I would have liked more stories from the road (he does touch on this but not enough IMO), especially because Patton really struggled on his way to success. I'm sure he has so much more to say about that arduous journey.

For Patton's hard-core fans, check the book out just to get another glimpse into his arcane madness. But for casual fans, I'd recommend going to YouTube and watching excerpts from his stand-up. That's where he really shines.

This is the first review I have written for a book on Amazon, mostly because this is the first book I've felt strongly enough to actually write about. I've read a couple other reviews and it seems that most people share the same opinion as me. The book was interesting. It goes without saying that Oswalt is a great comedian and a funny writer at some points during the book. He had some one-liners that really got me laughing.
I found though that most of my time reading the book though, was spent wondering why I was hearing about any of this, or what relevance it had to me. I like to think of myself as a generally intelligent person, and I had difficulty trying to find any relevance in this (essentially) short series of anecdotes. From beginning to end, I wondered what the book was about. Because the title sure doesn't tell you. I was searching for lessons, morals, general patterns that each chapter ended up on, and I found nothing.
This book is a chuckle-inducing storm of non-related thoughts that have gone through Oswalt's head. There was really only one section that I truly enjoyed reading, but to each his own. 3 stars for an "interesting" couple of days.