Rating: 
Summary: A Sorry Disappointment
Review: When this writer was compared to David Saderis, I expected the same witty, satire that I enjoyed with Barrel Fever/Holidays On Ice/Naked/I Talk Pretty One Day. They do have the same first name. That's where the similarity ends. Though Rakoff does give you good leads for stories, he weighs them down with his wordy descriptions of everything around him. He finds places to used fifty cent words that baffles the mind. I began to feel as if I were listening to a fiction novel with no plot. Eventually it became mindless babble. After listening to all four discs, I am sorry but he bored me.
Rating: 
Summary: You're maudlin and full of self-pity. You're magnificent.
Review: The preface quote says it all: "You're maudlin and full of self-pity. You're magnificent." This is a collection of about 15 short essays and stories by David Rakoff, known for his essays and interviews in The New York Times Sunday Magazine and from his appearances on WBZ-Public Radio's This American Life with Ira Glass. A New York City-based young, gay, Jewish man who is actually Canadian (yes, he is a fraud like Peter Jennings and Monty Hall), with a degree in Japanese studies, his stories place him in a range of activities. Each story is tender, fresh and funny. My favorites included stories on the time he attended a survival school in which he learns to skin animals and never again to drive down the highway and look at roadkill the same way; an essay on the day he climbed Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire on a cold stormy Christmas in a possible test of ennobling manhood; his recounting of a Toronto adolescence where he and other children of professionals sang the Internationale, commited themselves to Zionist Socialism, and did an instructional stint in a kibbutz chicken coop; and the time he played a form of Jewy McHebrew on a soap opera, and imagined himself in a recurring role. Some of the other stories include the time he sat in Manhattan clothing store's Christmas window as a Christmas Sigmund Freud (he tells people why their wishful desires are unhealthy for them, or wished for in error); a story in which he attends a weekend Buddhist retreat, in which the Aikido-fighting, aubergine and saffron wearing, actor, Steven Seagal is the guest teacher of Tibetan Buddhism; and a story that should be read by every college English major, namely an essay of despair that recounts the time he worked as a low-payed entry level editorial assistant (secretary) at a NYC publisher.
Rating:
Summary: Essays that are funny - and more
Review: These are great essays, and the editorial praise they have elicited is accurate and earned. Whether or not you are familiar with Rakoff from his radio spots, in print he is often side-splittingly funny, always witty, and occasionally profound. He is a 'raconteur' in the tradition of the great ones: an event is reported on through his lens, and the results are smart, satisfying. His undergraduate degree is in Japanese studies; he returns to Tokyo (where he first noticed the earliest symptom of cancer, years earlier) and files a report that is original and a great read. In other of his travel pieces, for example, one of his recurring themes (never boring or overdone) is the desperate feeling that inevitably overtakes him when there is nothing left to do in a place, yet there are another few days before he can leave. His wit and cynicism is tempered, though, by self-deprecation and a sense of absurdity (also not overdone). Amortized on a per-laugh basis, this collection is a remarkable bargain, too. Completely worthwhile.
Rating: 
Summary: ODD: FRESS-AYS
Review: Be careful while reading this collection of self-important ramblings. Hold it upright, lest a bunch of gluttonously plonked heavy words should fall and hurt your toes.
If you're immune to such "oleaginous talk" (p. 191), be prepared for themes that're about as amusing as re-runs on the home shopping network.
Clearly, Rakoff set out to write a book that wouldn't be tossed aside lightly. Which it rightly shouldn't; it deserves to be flung away with great force.
Rating:
Summary: Less Witty, More Whiny
Review: I promised myself that I wouldn't compare this book to the writings of David Sedaris, however, after numerous references to "My friend David", or "The play written by my friend David and his sister Amy", and even a front cover quote from David Sedaris himself, I found it impossible not to make comparisons.
David Rakoff starts out very strongly with "In New England, Everyone Calls You Dave", but seems to stall with many of his other stories, and seems to exude less wit, and more whine. While Sedaris points out other people's shortcomings in a humorous and almost omniscient manner, Rakoff wears thin rather quickly, and comes off more bitter and self-righteous than humorous. Rakoff is obviously very well read, but his love of the thesaurus tends to make his writing seem pretentious, even when he's trying to be an Average Joe. His observations just don't have the immediacy of someone seeing someone/something, but rather seem to be boiled down and carefully picked through like an overcooked stew. This takes most of the humor out of the stories, and what you're left with is rather flavorless.
There are several funny stories later in the book, but it takes such an effort to get to them that it may not be worth it. Overall, an okay effort, but I'd rather stick with Sedaris.
Rating:
Summary: Too much work
Review: I purchased this book because as a David Sedaris fan it was recommended to me by Amazon ("if you like this book, you'll like..."). After reading a few pages I realized that the only thing David Sedaris and Rakoff have in common is their first name. Sedaris engages his readers and accompanies them on the journey he puts forth in print. Rakoff however, throws his words at the reader and runs away, abandoning the reader in a quagmire of over-thought words and phrases. I'm an educated person, but Rakoff uses words that I've never heard before. You need to read this book with an accompanying dictionary. There is at least one word per page that you'll have to lookup, even if you're a college professor. I tried to finish this book, but only made it about ¾ way through. It was too much work, and I like to read for pleasure.
Rating:
Summary: not an enjoyable read........
Review: I have a broad vocabulary, but when I read and write my goal is clarity of expression, communicating with my audience.
The author's labored and awkward use of remote words is overly self-conscious, sophomoric, forced and downright embarassing.
His choice of words comes off as desperately insecure-- and rather than aid in communication/expression, the overall effect is dilution and loss of impact. Why say "coital relations" when "knocking boots" creates a better image?
Honestly, this book was torture.
Rating: 
Summary: Anyone Seen David Sedaris Lately? Wonder Where Sedairs Is...
Review: My rating is in the stars, but since everyone else has basically said it all well enough already, I've compiled the most important and most interesting excerpts from the writings of previous reviewers.
"His intelligence is clearly there, but he likes to hide it in a maze of needlessly complicated prose and obscure references that only a gay Canadian Jew would understand." - cn frost
" Rakoff is not afraid to make fun of himself" - Stuart Howard
"I think many readers may begin to read this" - vladekrussell
"milquetoast" - atermr
"Fraud is self-deprecating irreverence that hits the mark." - Peter Jackman
"if you want really to enjoy him, skim off the last paragraph of each entry when he shifts tones to dewy-eyed wonder to share with you The Lesson He's Learned" - jade nb
"This American Life" - Brian Marino
"I hate to be like everyone else and use David Sedaris as a benchmark" - Kathy cimino
"we shouldn't want him to be Sedaris" - R. Walker
"Nothing in Fraud comes close to Sedaris" - Michelle C. Benko
"I am now actually toting around a little list of words I call my Rakoff Words, trying to use them in sentences - which is not easy." - Kim Bingham
"Sedaris" - A reader
"effete lexicon" - Joshua a. reed
"Sedaris" - Walter Heape
"A fun collection." - blissengine
"Sedaris" - S. Karen C.
"Rakoff's humor is clearly not for everyone." - walter e. hall
"I cracked a smile every now and then" - biomusician
"I don't care if he's not David Sedaris" - j3fer
"Sedaris" - Dr. Christopher Coleman
"chicken coop" - Larry Mark
"Other reviewers have invariably used David Sedaris as the benchmark to measure David Rakoff against." - Lee Kessler
"bargin" - Ellen Galen
"Not every day that you come across a book..." - Christa
"Sedaris" - Michael Paul Maupin, Brett Brenner, Jeremy Youde, clevermix, sally barry, Valerie frankel and Marie Potter
Rating:
Summary: Barely Legible
Review: Comparisons to Sedaris are totally unwarranted with Rakoff's book "Fraud". With all of these comparisons floating around, I was expecting a good funny read. What I got was a guy who can't stand the thought that the reader might forget that he is a gay Canadian Jew. After managing to make it halfway through the book I was very tempted to give up, but I decided to keep on, and finally I was rewarded with a couple of really good essays towards the end of the book. But nothing worth writing home about or plunking down your hard-earned dough for. I really like what one reviewer said....that Rakoff is either incredibly intelligent or just in love with his thesaurus. I personally think he is both. His intelligence is clearly there, but he likes to hide it in a maze of needlessly complicated prose and obscure references that only a gay Canadian Jew would understand. See? I've only mentioned it twice and it's already annoying! If you're looking for a challenging read that offers little in the way of a reward, then this book is for you. If you're looking for even a little bit of humor, then it's not. Personally, I was glad when it was over.
Rating: 
Summary: Humour with a lesson
Review: Bear with me while I start a review of David Rakoff by talking about David Sedaris. It's relevant. When I first read David Sedaris, I got the impression that I had inadvertently picked up a toned-down true-life confessional instead of a humour book; having been raised on Dave Barry, it was hard for me to accept that this sort of low-key subtlety could be funny, and I confess I was disappointed. After a little time had passed and I had got the idea that Sedaris wasn't going to make me topple from my chair with laughter, I read a few of his essays again with an eye for the quieter humour, and I liked it much more. Now to David Rakoff. The connexion is not a tenuous one; there's a somewhat ambiguous quote from David Sedaris on the front cover, and we're clearly meant to buy the writings of one because we enjoy the work of the other. (The quote says David Rakoff ``passes himself off'' as a funnyman, which I think is meant to be in keeping with the theme but comes off as a bit of a backhanded compliment.) Indeed, as many of the other reviewers here seem to have pointed out already, there's also a strong stylistic similarity, and it takes a similar eye for low-key rather than guffawing knee-slapping humour to appreciate it. The only problem is that Rakoff seems to want to drive home to us that, underneath this veneer of unmoved cynicism, of hard-edged New Yorkerism, he's really a guy who Gets It. I was reminded inevitably of a sitcom in which the characters might bicker, but, in the end, they really love one another. Rakoff can be funny, even hilarious, in places, and he's a marvellously intelligent writer, but, if you want really to enjoy him, skim off the last paragraph of each entry when he shifts tones to dewy-eyed wonder to share with you The Lesson He's Learned (nature isn't that bad; credulous Loch Ness-types aren't that bad; martial arts mysticism isn't that bad). The only time this wasn't objectionable was in the last essay, in reading which I really felt like I had shared in a slice of his life. Here, the lesson is not I Shouldn't be Intolerant but rather -- well, read it. It's a genuine lesson learned, not a pleased reflexion on how open-minded he really is, in the end; and it's welcome, and almost heartbreaking, this thoroughly genuine moment in a book so entrenchedly about sarcasm and fraud.
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