$9.95
List price: 23.95
You save: $14.00
HARDCOVER, USED
Ships in 1 to 3 days
| Qty | Store | Section |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Burnside | Journalism- Journalists |
| Hide store locations | ||
Don't Get Too Comfortable: The Indignities of Coach Class, the Torments of Low Thread Count, the Never-Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems
by David Rakoff
|
|
|
About This Book
ISBN13: 9780385510363 
|
Only 3 left in stock at $9.95!
Powells.com Staff Pick
"Don't Get Too Comfortable is a gratifying reading experience for the misanthrope in all of us. Rakoff has a style and wit that is appropriately cruel towards its deserving targets. If you actually enjoy foie gras, performance art, or stalking celebrities, you'll probably miss the joke and would be much happier reading either Architectural Digest or Us magazine." Gerry Donaghy, Powells.com (read the entire Powells.com review)
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
David Rakoff's bestselling collection of autobiographical essays, Fraud, established him as one of today's funniest and most insightful writers. Now, in Don't Get Too Comfortable, Rakoff moves from the personal to the public, journeying into the land of unchecked plenty that is contemporary America. Rarely have greed, vanity, selfishness, and vapidity been so mercilessly and wittily skewered.
Somewhere along the line, our healthy self-regard has exploded into obliterating narcissism; our manic getting and spending have now become celebrated as moral virtues. Whether contrasting the elegance of one of the last flights of the supersonic Concorde with the good-times-and-chicken-wings populism of Hooters Air, working as a cabana boy at a South Beach hotel, or traveling to a private island off the coast of Belize to watch a soft-core video shoot — where he is provided with his very own personal manservant — Rakoff takes us on a bitingly funny grand tour of our culture of excess. He comes away from his explorations hilariously horrified.
At once a Wildean satire of our ridiculous culture of overconsumption and a plea for a little human decency, Don't Get Too Comfortable shows that far from being bobos in paradise, we're in a special circle of gilded-age hell.
Review:
"The title of this collection of humorous essays could also serve as a warning label for its readers. They'll want to stay on guard as GQ writer-at-large Rakoff (Fraud) skewers everything and everyone he encounters. His writing is at its best when trained on the pompous and ostentatious: flying on the Concorde or visiting an exclusive, $1,300-a-night resort off Belize. While attending the Paris couture shows, Rakoff reveals the silliness of the whole enterprise with quips about Karl Lagerfeld's pre-weight loss 'large doughy rump' and the 'dry spaghetti' of one model's hair. In another piece, a prominent Beverly Hills plastic surgeon tells Rakoff, 'this is the Dark Ages' for cosmetic surgery (meaning that future generations will be amazed by the inevitable advances) before taking him into an examination room. While Rakoff's sardonic wit is clearly his greatest asset, it is sometimes his undoing; the same dry humor that works so well when aimed at the rich and decadent seems mean-spirited when applied to less prominent targets, like 'Wildman' Steve Brill, who forages for food in New York City's parks. Still, Rakoff is generally a knowing observer of 'first world problems,' and his devilishly uncomfortable commentaries are generally quite funny. Agent, Irene Skolnick. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
"There are times when you wish Rakoff would have given himself more room, but there's something to be said for a writer who refuses to pad. The self-lacerating wit of David Sedaris mixed with the biting commentary of Dan Savage — only completely and utterly original." Kirkus Reviews
Review:
"Rakoff knows the incantatory power of a story well-told, the art of keeping words aloft like the bubbles in a champagne flute. He possesses the crackling wit of a '30s screwball comedy ingenue, a vocabulary that is a treasure chest of mots justes, impressive but most times not too showy for everyday wear." Los Angeles Times
Review:
"To be sure, Rakoff can issue a withering snark with the best of them. But once his rapier wit has sliced the buttons off his target's clothing, revealing the quivering, vulnerable mass within, his fundamental sense of decency gets the best of him." Salon
Review:
"Rakoff's humor is acidic without being poisonous, snarky without sacrificing emotional generosity. And with gentle precision, Rakoff manages to paint phrases, gestures, and situations...As a storyteller, Rakoff makes believers of us." The Boston Phoenix
Review:
"Sounding like the love child of Dorothy Parker, Oscar Wilde and All About Eve's Addison DeWitt, [Rakoff] is smug, insufferable and self-infatuated to a fare-thee-well. He's magnificent." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Review:
"There's another side to Rakoff the Outraged. In spite of himself, a sweetness comes through...He can make you laugh, and then, suddenly, there comes a passage that touches you with wonder." Gotham Magazine
Review:
"It is not unusual to find a humorist that is funny. But it is unusual to find a humorist that is smart and wry and sensitive as well. We find all that in David Rakoff." Charleston Post and Courier
Review:
"...Rakoff's cogent observations are delivered with a comforting mixture of appropriate moral outrage and unabashed mocking wonder, as he unfailingly elicits the inherent truths behind our most cherished and churlish institutions." Booklist
Synopsis:
Rakoff's collection of autobiographical essays, Fraud, established him as one of this country's funniest, most insightful writers. Now he journeys into the land of plenty that is contemporary North America.
About the Author
David Rakoff is a regular contributor to Public Radio International's This American Life, GQ magazine, and Outside. He has also written for the New York Times Magazine, Vogue, the New York Observer, and Salon, among other publications. He lives in New York City.
What Our Readers Are Saying
Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
-
Shoshana, August 8, 2008 (view all comments by Shoshana)
The title is a misnomer; Rakoff is not, in fact comfortable with luxury; he is in some ways even uncomfortable with the fantasy of luxury. A better title would be Discomfort. Though the book belongs firmly in the genre of Gay Men Observing Culture, Rakoff, though anxious, is less neurotic than David Sedaris and kinder than Augustin Burroughs. A quick read, gentle and enjoyable, but not momentous.
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780385510363
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Doubleday Books
- Subject:
- Essays
- Subject:
- American - General
- Subject:
- Consumer behavior
- Subject:
- Form - Essays
- Subject:
- Social status
- Copyright:
- 2005
- Publication Date:
- September 20, 2005
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 222
- Dimensions:
- 8.52x5.88x.84 in. .86 lbs.
