The Reluctant Metrosexual: Dispatches from an Almost Hip Life (Paperback)

by Peter Hyman (Author) "When asked by a curious novice to define jazz, Louis Armstrong famously quipped, "Man, if you have to ask, you'll never know..." (more)
Key Phrases: serial dating, trucker hats, queer eye, New York, Vanity Fair, Waspy Jew (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Providing further evidence of the fine line between being a dorky loser and a pop-culture superhero (William Hung, anyone?), this is Hyman's attempt to turn his failures at love, life and employment into a cash cow. What's in it for readers? "Well, very little," admits Hyman, a Manhattan writer and occasional stand-up comedian, but it "beats a kick in the teeth, or being shipped off to fight in Iraq." A metrosexual, Hyman reminds us, is a straight guy in touch with his feminine side, one who appreciates "expensive home furnishings, good grooming, and heirloom tomatoes." Actually, Hyman comes off as an everyman probing the outer edges of modern, mainstream, urban existence, and his essays recount his exploits with startling, often hilarious results. He recalls his appointment with Hans, a gay masseur whose hands get a little too close "to the unauthorized no-man's–land," and an aborted attempt at a ménage à trois that ends up having "all the erotic panache of a Three Stooges episode." Another chapter tells of Hyman's night on the town wearing leather pants, which prompts the astute observation, "sometimes the idea of something is better than the thing itself." Hyman's stories have funny setups, and his conversational, easy-to-read prose carries a weird poignancy.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
It's an urban jungle out there--especially for an arrow-straight male in touch with his feminine side. From flat-front trousers to oatmeal facial scrubs to fine interior design, this wry debut gathers the chromosomal contemplations of a "metrosexual"--a modern-day "X"-man who can't help but wonder "Y." Law-school dropout, former Vanity Fair staffer, and confirmed heterosexual Hyman covets the tony Manhattan lifestyle--the classy girlfriend, the well-appointed co-op apartment, the career that gains him entree into the exclusive Upper West Side. Instead, his world is a veritable dim sum of bewildering social encounters--dates who vomit, a luscious threesome that goes limp, and a handsome massage therapist with a curious "release" technique. All the while, men and women gaze at the author's slight build and natty dress and conclude that he's gay. (A writing assignment requiring him to wear a leather ensemble worthy of the Village People does little to dissuade.) A master of self-deprecation in the spirit of Joe Queenan and P. J. O'Rourke, Hyman takes on contemporary culture with a scalpel and a smirk. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Villard (July 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812971639
• ISBN-13: 978-0812971637
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,140,616 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not Worth Your Time, December 5, 2004

By	AshokLA (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

When I bought this book, I was hoping for clever, funny, insightful essays on modern urban life. Instead, the book contains a series of essays trying to be clever, funny and insightful and not succeeding. I am actually perplexed that these weak essays which were probably rejected by GQ, the New Yorker, the NY Times Magazine and probably even by Los Angeles and Gear were ever published in book form.

The essays cover various aspects of the author's city life. The lack of insight and humor would be ok if his life was interesting on its own but it is not. It is a life shared by or familiar to most urban Americans. Hyman's book is like an unsuccessful version of the "recognition humor" practiced by Jerry Seinfeld. (You can imagine Hyman in a club saying "How about that internet dating," getting a few chuckles, and then silence as the follow up observations fall flat).

It is possible that the book could prove of some anthropological interest to some rural or outer suburban readers who are not familiar with city dwellers and for that one star.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Funny and enjoyable but not 5 stars for gosh sakes..., September 3, 2004

By	Anne Terry "chikwik" (Southfield, MI USA) - See all my reviews

Read it in the airport and on a flight from Boston to the midwest, so it's a very quick read. It was very funny, but didn't stay with me. Sort of like having a conversation with an interesting seatmate on an airplane. It passes the time, (or in this case, make a living for the author) and is amusing, but just that.

This book consists of brief, supposedly autobiographical essays from a year in his life. I wonder how much was true, and how much was strictly his vivid imagination. I hope this author does write the great american novel, since I really like his style, but I won't recommend this book to most people.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Wannabe Flops Big, October 23, 2004

By	Goshen (Ypsilanti, MI United States) - See all my reviews

As mentioned by a reviewer below, this self-styled, supposedly-self-deprecating wannabe hipster has written a shallow, not-funny book. He tries hard to be funny in every sentence, which gets tiresome (and fails). All the expensive-name-brand-dropping had me rolling my eyes. If he was showing any talent whatsoever back in law school, I think it was a mistake for him to drop it for "his life as a writer" instead. I get the feeling that this collection of essays was meant to attract the same audience that reads authors like David Sedaris and David Rakoff. Those authors, however, have genuinely comic voices and some hilarious stories to tell, whereas Hyman may not be lying when he asserts that he's just out to catch the wave of a trendy concept. (Perhaps not unlike the difference between "homo" and "metro" in general?)