David Thorne is a jerk.
Granted, there are a lot of jerks out there making money off of their jerkiness. There are the boys from
Jackass
. The main characters from
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
and
Arrested Development
and
The League
and
Archer
and
Seinfeld
and
Curb Your Enthusiasm
. Tosh.0. The abysmally popular Tucker Max novels. There's even Steve Martin's
The Jerk
, although he's less a jerk than an idiot. Not that the two aren't often synonymous.
That's the real trademark of a jerk worth paying attention to: intelligence. And if Thorne is a jerk, he's at least a smart jerk. This book (mostly) contains email exchanges he's had with co-workers, online roustabouts, and folks who are otherwise just trying to do their jobs (mostly bill collectors). He approaches these communiques with the subtle and absurdist wit of Monty Python channeling
John Swartzwelder
. Or vice versa. They're a lot funnier if you believe that they're real, and after having read both of his books, I'm inclined to believe. If they're entirely fictional, then I'd be more impressed, although not nearly as amused.
Much of the book relies on knowing things about David, such as his coworkers' names and various inside jokes he has with regards to most of them. Certain people -- Simon, Holly, Shannon, Lucius, Thomas -- figure prominently in Thorne's life, but it takes a few reads to figure out how or why, at which point the jokes start to make a lot more sense. Of course, some of his more famous exchanges don't need a whole lot of backstory to work ("Missing Missy" is perhaps his most famous, and for good reason).
The book is also peppered with essays that aren't quite as funny as the emails. Written with a random, absurd, kitchen-sink approach, they're pretty much Thorne being as wacky as he can possibly be. At their best, they sound like some of Woody Allen's older stuff from The New Yorker. At their worst, they're repetitive jokes about how dumb he can make the narrator sound. Overall, Thorne's funnier when he's just being mean to what (I hope) are real people.
His second book
is, I think, much better. For one thing, the ridiculous essays are gone, replaced with true-life tales of both his home life and his experiences with nearly cheating death. They show how well he can find the humor in almost anything without having to resort to bizarre non-sequiturs or wacky nonsense. If you like the wacky nonsense, he's included several picture stories (most about his group of cat friends) that are punchy and hilarious (the best is when the cops pull them over). There are a few pictures of formal notices, letters, and forms that are difficult to read on the Kindle, but they aren't completely illegible. Overall, it's a much better read than the first book, even if it does make David look even more like a jerk than the first book. I mean, I'd hate to be in his life, but I enjoy reading about others who aren't as fortunate.
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