- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Anchor Canada (Sep 6 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 038567032X
- ISBN-13: 978-0385670326
- Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 13.2 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #205,760 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"Rakoff has a self-awareness that could be recreated only by a team of geneticists working in a lab. . . . File Rakoff under 'essayist, brilliant'."
— The New York Times
"[Rakoff] seems like the kind of person one would want to be seated next to at a dinner party--quick with repartee and a scathing put-down, but also capable of deep insight."
— Winnipeg Free Press
"[Rakoff] wields his talent for the sharpest, most adroit social and personal commentary like it's nothing, confirming that he can do the hard work of both fiction and journalism at once."
— Eye Weekly
— The New York Times
"[Rakoff] seems like the kind of person one would want to be seated next to at a dinner party--quick with repartee and a scathing put-down, but also capable of deep insight."
— Winnipeg Free Press
"[Rakoff] wields his talent for the sharpest, most adroit social and personal commentary like it's nothing, confirming that he can do the hard work of both fiction and journalism at once."
— Eye Weekly
Product Description
The inimitably witty David Rakoff, This American Life stalwart and bestselling author, looks at the modern world and his own life in defense of the commonsensical notion that you should always assume the worst.
In this deeply funny memoir, David Rakoff examines his own life and the realities of our sunny, gosh-everyone-can-be-a-star contemporary culture. He finds that, pretty much as a universal rule, the best is not yet to come, adversity will triumph, justice will not be served, and your dreams won't come true. Although David has a long-nurtured abhorrence of "inspirational" memoirs, much of the book recounts his own personal experiences: the moment when being a tiny child no longer meant adults found him charming but instead meant other children found him a fun target; the late evening in Manhattan when he was young and the city seemed to brim with such possibility that the street shimmered in the moonlight — as he drew closer he realized the streets actually shimmered with rats in a feeding frenzy. He also weaves in his brand of acute and Oscar Wilde-worthy cultural criticism (the sad state of the outdated "House of Tomorrow" at Disneyland, for one). It all adds up to proof of the proposition: Always be a pessimist, and you'll never be disappointed.
From the Hardcover edition.
In this deeply funny memoir, David Rakoff examines his own life and the realities of our sunny, gosh-everyone-can-be-a-star contemporary culture. He finds that, pretty much as a universal rule, the best is not yet to come, adversity will triumph, justice will not be served, and your dreams won't come true. Although David has a long-nurtured abhorrence of "inspirational" memoirs, much of the book recounts his own personal experiences: the moment when being a tiny child no longer meant adults found him charming but instead meant other children found him a fun target; the late evening in Manhattan when he was young and the city seemed to brim with such possibility that the street shimmered in the moonlight — as he drew closer he realized the streets actually shimmered with rats in a feeding frenzy. He also weaves in his brand of acute and Oscar Wilde-worthy cultural criticism (the sad state of the outdated "House of Tomorrow" at Disneyland, for one). It all adds up to proof of the proposition: Always be a pessimist, and you'll never be disappointed.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Poignant, droll, and insightful.,
This review is from: Half Empty (Hardcover)
The cover of this book warns that, "No inspirational life lessons will be found in these pages." This is mostly true. It sets out to challenge the 'think positively and everything will work out all right' mentality and does so very effectively, yet without being a total downer. I was left neither with a sense that I could change my life just by changing my 'vibes' into shiny happy ones, nor that I should just give up and surrender to the inevitable hardships and tragedies of the world. Rather, I was left with an understanding that when bad things happen I won't be able to control them but I don't have to let them control me, either. As Rakoff so simply observes, "Everybody's got something." While this seems very heavy (and at times it really is) anyone who has read or heard Rakoff's work before knows that this insight comes with incredible wit. While there may not be "inspirational life lessons" in this book, there are lots of laughs.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.7 out of 5 stars (53 customer reviews) 51 of 53 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Acerbic, funny, and, sometimes, poignant,
By P. Mann - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Half Empty (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
David Rakoff's "Half Empty" consists of ten essays, which range from the bitingly sarcastic to the surprisingly poignant. The book begins with "The Bleak Shall Inherit," a few-holds-barred rant about what Mr. Rakoff sees as ubiquitous and unrepentant (and unjustifiable) optimism. "Isn't It Romantic?" skewers Rent and is probably both the best crafted and the funniest essay of the lot. In "A Capacity for Wonder," the author presents a mini-travelogue, taking us to the Disney Innoventions Dream House, Hollywood Boulevard, and Salt Lake City, Utah. The final two essays, "All the Time We Have" and "Another Shoe" are the most somber contributions, dealing as they do with the death of the author's therapist and the author's experience with cancer, respectively.When I first started reading this book, one thing became apparent immediately: Mr. Rakoff can write, most of the time. Yes, he sometimes seems to go on, allowing sentences to continue far past the point at which they should have died had nature been allowed to take its course, but there was, for me, a clear sense of someone with great skill with words at work here. This is not, as William Tapply called it, invisible writing. Rather, the writing itself is part of the pleasure of the book. I am certain that I did not catch all the allusions, but I like writing that challenges, that sometimes goes beyond what most readers are able to absorb easily. There are essays that are simply fascinating for their informativeness (such as "A Capacity for Wonder," which combines solid facts alongside the commentary) and those that are lots of fun (such as "The Satisfying Crunch of Dreams Underfoot," which deals with Mr. Rakoff's brief flirtation with film stardom in The First Wives Club and his one "deeply unkind" comment about a certain author. The book's final two essays are more somber and subdued, both in content and in style, and they make for a distinct departure from the prevalent tone throughout. As a result, "Half Empty" is a series of essays grouped only by their creator and not by theme or tenor. I don't think every piece is necessarily a hit, but for people who like good writing and sometimes biting sarcasm, there almost certainly will be something here to please. 43 of 45 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
He Makes Us Look at Truth,
By Mary Lins - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Half Empty (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
Reading David Rakoff's new collection of essays, "Half Empty" reminds me of this Czeslaw Milosz quote: "In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot." Rakoff is so good at pointing out the truth in a way that clobbers you over the head with the realization of how blind you've been.Rakoff is my favorite contrarian. And I have a soft-spot for those who admit to being a dilettante - being a bit of one myself. I adore his cynical pessimism and his struggles with his dark nature, and boy do I love his wit! Right off the bat in the first essay, "The Bleak Shall Inherit", Rakoff paints a vivid picture of pre-9/11 society with the dot.com bubble millionaires and a "self-help" book that MIGHT expose the inefficacy of eternal optimism. Of course, things don't turn out. For Rakoff, they never do. And much as I love the musical "Rent", thanks to Rakoff's, "Isn't it Romantic" deconstruction, I'll never be able to look at it/hear it quite the same again. I love the way he cuts to the heart of the cultural views of "art and artist" and right through the BS. Another essay is a hilarious explanation of the complicated relationship between Jews and pork. The middle set-piece, "A Capacity for Wonder - Three Expeditions", has Rakoff striving to show that he isn't allergic to adventure by exploring three places of "wonder": First it's the Disney House of the Future - basically a trade-show with a creepy fake family. Rakoff exposes it as the "dog-pile of consumerism" it is. Next Rakoff walks the Hollywood Walk of Fame - Hollywood is easy pickings for a satirist but he brings us FRESH hypocrisies at which to marvel. And interestingly, the third "adventure" is Utah, specifically Salt Lake City, where he stays in a hotel that "Edward Hopper never felt bummed out enough to paint". In "I Feel Dirty" we are treated to a singularly un-sexy look at the porn industry: prepare to cringe. The last essay, "Another Shoe" will have you riveted. It's powerful and no way will I spoil it. Don't read it first; he put it last for a reason. Rakoff lovers will not be disappointed in this set of essays, and new readers who discover his unique style of humor and truth will want to read his previous two collections. Mazel Tov, David. 27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Funny, Sometimes Difficult Read,
By booksy - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Half Empty (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
I thought this book was going to be an argument against the "positive thinking" movement, but I was pleasantly surprised by the contents. It's a series of autobiographical essays loosely based on the theme of disappointment, pessimism or failure. Rakoff tells varied life stories about going to see the "World of Tomorrow" house, his very short stint as a minor character in a chick flick, and his visit to a fetish ball, among other things. All of it is told with a biting, wry humor that really endeared himself to me. The end of the book is surprisingly moving and serious, but fits in with the overall theme and was satisfying in a poignant way.Rakoff's writing style is very dense and may put some people off. He goes off on many tangents within his paragraphs, and I found myself having to re-read pages several times, but the payoff was worth it for me. I like to read prose that is not dumbed-down for me, that requires some effort to get to the heart of it, and Rakoff exemplifies this style. His work is slightly similar to the writer David Sedaris, but with a more detailed and finely-wrought hand rather than Sedaris's broad stroke. |
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