In the spirit of Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, Harmon's tongue-in-cheek collection of words to live by should become a new classic. Over the past 10 years, he queried hundreds of social thinkers, academics, poets, artists and more--and received some fantastic responses. As Harmon says, "I would be a complete ingrate not to share those thoughts." And so, Mary McCarthy advises, "Be truthful... and pay attention. I would also recommend the avoidance of credit cards." Anita O'Day suggests, "Just get up there and let it rip!" Dr. Laura Schlessinger counsels, "Never sell your soul." And Katharine Hepburn recommends, "Work as hard as you can, whatever you do, and try to spread generosity of spirit."
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From Booklist
Determined not to make a "warm, gooey book with the shelf lifeof a banana," artist and writer Harmon asked a wide range of authors,activists, artists, radicals, journalists, and academics to offertheir advice to a new generation just reaching adulthood. Theresulting "letters" range from shocking to straightforward, intenselypersonal to generic, and the views are slanted far to the artisticleft. There's sound advice: "Look for independent sources ofinformation." And less sound advice: on the necessity of travel, onecontributor scolds, "Don't say you can't afford it. In a pinch you canalways smuggle something." And there's the completely outrageous:"Beware of whores who say they don't want money. The hell theydon't." The best selections are wise, realistic, and not coddling,and they offer fine, provocative browsing to world-wearytwentysomethings with artistic aspirations. Gillian Engberg
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