My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist

Rating:
Summary: Fiction on crack
Review: My visual arts analogy for the experience of reading this book: Take a can of Andy Warhol Campbell's soup, open it, and splatter it in maniacal fashion all over a wall, then lick it all off. Expose the sticky, tangy contents of prissy Andy's 'art' and then eat it up. This book will not change your life, but it will entertain the hell out of you. These days, you can't ask for much more without taking yourself too seriously.

Rating:
Summary: Fiction on crack
Review: My visual arts analogy for the experience of reading this book: Take a can of Andy Warhol Campbell's soup, open it, and splatter it in maniacal fashion all over a wall, then lick it all off. Expose the sticky, tangy contents of prissy Andy's 'art' and then eat it up. This book will not change your life, but it will entertain the hell out of you. These days, you can't ask for much more without taking yourself too seriously.

Rating:
Summary: Heady travel fare...
Review: Picked up a copy in a gift shop at Chicago O'Hare airport. Laffed my way Albany, via Pittsburgh. Throughly enjoyed the ridiculous and oft times "confusticating" cyber-punk. At first it struck me as the private musings of a terminally bored and out of work english major but indeed impressed me for what it was in the end. A cynical, silly, ridiculous and at times much more serious than you might think collection of short stories. The 4th star was for the cover art. Huzzah.

Rating:
Summary: Wannabe
Review: Pseudo-hip, pseudo-funny. I thought I would like this novel, because I have liked Leyner's writing for Esquire. I was disappointed. The book tries to be too many things: beatnik, gen-x, hunter s. thompson. Instead, it has no center, and its ideas and humor are so derivative, the prose is almost unreadable.

Rating:
Summary: Laugh hard again...
Review: Remember how hard you laughed at "Without Feathers" by Woody Allen? You'll laugh that hard again. That is, unless you're a frustrated English lit professor wannabe. Then you'll find it pretentious and pointless. Who cares. It's still the funniest prose I've ever read and the funniest of all of Leyner's books.

Rating:
Summary: Laugh hard again...
Review: Remember how hard you laughed at "Without Feathers" by Woody Allen? You'll laugh that hard again. That is, unless you're a frustrated English lit professor wannabe. Then you'll find it pretentious and pointless. Who cares. It's still the funniest prose I've ever read and the funniest of all of Leyner's books.

Rating:
Summary: Laugh hard again...
Review: Remember how hard you laughed at "Without Feathers" by Woody Allen? You'll laugh that hard again. That is, unless you're a frustrated English lit professor wannabe. Then you'll find it pretentious and pointless. Who cares. It's still the funniest prose I've ever read and the funniest of all of Leyner's books.

Rating:
Summary: What was the point of this?
Review: Sure it was witty and off the wall but annoying as hell to read. Well written but no point.

Rating:
Summary: a howl through America's icon from inside a maniac's brain
Review: The most original voice in America today. Certainly a proponent of the old saying, "if you remember the seventies, you didn't do it right"

Rating:
Summary: What-ever
Review: This book was annoying to no end. I can't start a book and not finish it, but man this was a task... some witty lines and parts, but the book tries so hard at being bizarre that it alienates in its pretentious manner of presenting fast food anonymous society. I like books off the beaten track, word games, and quirkiness...but I found the overkill quirkiness of this book insanely annoying. Hope someone finds this useful as a warning to not waste your time or money.