Synopses & Reviews
Review
"What midsummer night's feast would be digestible without Francine Prose's Gluttony; what weekend jaunt to your best friend's chateau would be survivable without Joseph Epstein's Envy? And you'll need Wendy Wasserstein's Sloth (wickedly subtitled 'And How to Get It') while you're struggling out of your deck chair." O, The Oprah Magazine
Review
"Whimsically packaged exminations of Lust by Simon Blackburn, Gluttony by Francine Prsoe, Envy by Joseph Epstein, Anger by Robert Thurman, Greed by Phyllis Tickle, Sloth by Wendy Wasserstein and Pride by Michael Eric Dyson become playgrounds for cultural reflection by authors and playwrights in Oxford's Seven Deadly Sins series." Publishers Weekly (on the series)
Review
"In a hilarious parody of self-help manuals, Wasserstein offers a book-inside-a-book how-to guide Sloth: And How to Get It on living a happy and guilt-free slothful life. Wasserstein's rapid-fire comic prose offers the perfect satire on a culture that continually invents more ways of moving less (television remotes, cell phones) in order to be blissfully slothful." Publishers Weekly
Review
"A delightfully hilarious parody...Wasserstein provides a plethora of amusing motivational strategies.... Not since Wendy Kaminer's I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional has self-help been so enjoyable!" Library Journal
Review
"This funny writer has produced Sloth: The Seven Deadly Sins, a poke at the self-help industry in which she also satirizes the legion of Americans who are cultural and political sloths." Newsday
Review
"Sloth is a hoot and nicely satirizes the extent to which so many self-improvement programs bring nothing but unhappiness and self-disgust to so many people." SpiritualityHealth.com
Review
"Funny, wise, and paradoxically invigorating, Wendy Wasserstein has written what we can all hope is the self-help book to end all self-help books. Sloth gives us the energy not just to laugh at the whole industry of diet, exercise, and beauty regimens, but succeeds in getting us also to laugh at ourselves. Sloth is a motivational masterpiece." Joseph Gordon, Dean of Undergraduate Education, Yale College
Review
"Anyone who's ever wondered if it wasn't time to stop and smell the roses needs to read Sloth, Wendy Wasserstein's wise and witty argument in favor of doing absolutely nothing. Embrace Ms. Wasserstein's philosophy and you will not only stop, you will abandon forever exhausting ideas like smelling anything, roses included. So gather your flagging forces and read this delightful book. It may well be the last thing you ever do." John Weidman, President of the Dramatic Guild of America
Synopsis
Here is a rollicking parody of the self-help genre, one that skewers the couch-bound, apathetic mentality so pervasive in America today.
With tongue in cheek, Sloth guides readers step-by-step toward a life of noncommittal inertia. You have the right to be lazy, writes Wasserstein. You can choose not to respond. You can choose not to move. Readers will find out the importance of Lethargiosis--the process of eliminating energy and drive, the vital first step in becoming a sloth. To help you attain the perfect state of indolent bliss, the book offers a wealth of self-help aids. Readers will find the sloth songbook, sloth breakfast bars (packed with sugar, additives, and a delicious touch of Ambien), sloth documentaries (such as the author's 12-hour epic on Thomas Aquinas), and the sloth network, channel 823, programming guaranteed not to stimulate or challenge in any way. (It may be difficult to distinguish between this and other channels, but only on channel 823 can you watch me sleeping.) Readers will also learn the top ten lies about Sloth, the ten commandments of Sloth, the SLOTH mantra, even the too-much ten--over-achievers such as Marie Curie, Shakespeare, and William the Conqueror. You will discover how to become a sloth in your diet, exercise, work, and even love-life (true love leads to passion, she warns, and passion is the biggest enemy of sloth).
Wendy Wasserstein is one of America's great comic writers--one who always has a serious point to her humor. Here, as she pokes fun at the self-help industry, she also satirizes the legion of Americans who are cultural and political sloths.
About the Author
The late Wendy Wasserstein was the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of The Heidi Chronicles, which also won a Tony Award. Her other plays include The Sisters Rosensweig, Uncommon Women and Others, Isn't It Romantic, and An American Daughter. She was also the author of Shiksa Goddess.