Rating: 
Summary: joke wears a bit thin after a while...
Review: The idea is clever, the execution less so. Some of the essays here are pretty weak, but there's a few gems here and there. Still, on the whole, it's all pretty predictable, and doesn't throw many surprises along the way, so the joke begins to wear thin pretty fast. John Updike's 'Bech' is a way funnier and more intelligent literary creation.
Rating: 
Summary: Egotistical White Male Writers Will Never Be the Same!
Review: Neal Pollack has written a splendid, hilarious, and badly needed parody of self-centered white male authors. His targets range from credible authors such as Gore Vidal and Hemmingway, to more minute members of the species such as Sebastian Junger. And while Pollack may not be aware of it, he has splendidly managed to ridicule the hubris, egotism, and total lack of talent of more obscure "all about me" writers such as Thomas Beller.Many critics have argued that Pollack's joke was too narrow to warrant the number of pages contained in this modest sized volume. While it is true that some of the parodies are not as funny as others, the book remains, diverse, interesting, and consistently funny. In "The Albania of My Existence", Pollack (clearly imitating Sebastian Junger) discusses what war torn Albania means to his identity and his accomplishments. In "I Am Friends with a Working Class Black Woman" he mirrors countless White guys who believe they are cool enough to understand and to be accepted by poor black people. In "It is Easy to Take a Love in Cuba", Pollack... well, you get the idea. This book is hilarious. It strips egotistical, White male authors and puts them on display. There is no reason why we can't enjoy the writing of some of those authors and also enjoy the skillful manner in which Pollack roasts them.
Rating: 
Summary: Goes Nowhere, And Fast!
Review: About the funniest part is the pictures. Otherwise, if you've read one page of this book, you've read them all. Of course, it's McSweeney's, so everyone fawns over it like it's actually something, which isn't to say that McSweeney's isn't EVER something, but Pollack (isn't that a kind of fish?) isn't it. Spend your money on candy instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Funniest book since!
Review: Absolutely hilarious and brilliant. I had to stop reading this on the train to work, it was getting just too weird to laugh so hard I'd cry in the middle of all these dour morning commuters. The funniest laugh-out-loud-every-paragraph book since Jerome K. Jerome's THREE MEN IN A BOAT or Graham Chapman's A LIAR'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY or maybe even CATCH-22 (all of which, I believe, Neal Pollack actually wrote...)
Rating:
Summary: A Classic From The Master
Review: Full disclosure: I have known Neal Pollack since I discovered him making sweet, beautiful love with my girlfriend (now my ex-wife) in 1964. I didn't mind, however, because Pollack's superior technique gave me the opportunity to take notes that I later used to great effect. Pollack is the greatest American man of letters since Gore Vidal and, I believe, much more butch than Gore, which is a mark in his favor. This collection reprises some of his greatest work, though I'm disappointed Neal left out his classic, "How I Fixed The Belmont Stakes," which many of you may remember from Women's Wear Daily in 1947. Bravo, Neal! I could not recommend this anthology more highly.
Rating:
Summary: Damn!! Neal Pollack is one gorgeous hunk!!!
Review: Back in 1989 while I was writing "Beards and Burkas: The Taliban 1994-2001" my award-winning book that correctly predicted the forming, rise, and fall of the Taliban, I met Mr. Pollack and we sat down for a chat. Me: You're a damn fine writer. Pollack: I know. Me: Really, you're a literary phenom. Pollack: Buy me a beer. Me: Okay. I'll never forget that day. That's why I know this book will win all the awards that the world gives out. It will probably even win an Emmy or Grammy. Also, check out the picture on the back....WOOOO!! What a stud.
Rating:
Summary: Sooo much better than Eggers.
Review: Neal Pollack is a genius with the pen. Nothing is too pure to molest, nothing is too sick to reveal. Mr. Pollack is a legend in his own time and is quite deserving of your attention and respect. You should do what you can to form a cult and sacrifice yourself immediately after his next tour. No, don't do that. You must stick around and buy multiple copies of every book he writes. When he dies, we must pick up the pen and create new works under his name for the masses. Special cloaks will have to be made. Incense will have to be purchased. Colorful translucent plastic sandals will be fashioned. We shall overcome. Dance my beautiful shadow, dance.
Rating:
Summary: Super satire
Review: Pollack's work lampoons the literati with a wit and skill that brings to mind The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus. Congratulations Mr. Pollack. It's safe to assume Swift, Pope, and Dr. Arbuthnot would share a hearty laugh with you.
Rating: 
Summary: Good start, Annoying after a while
Review: Pollack has an different style using a near solipsistic approach to everything. At first it is funny. His aping of classic texts gives the same feeling as getting an obscure joke on 'The Simpsons' - you feel happy about being so smart and everyone else is soooo bourgeois.... But after reading through five or ten of the shorts, it gets tiresome. Every piece seems to be the same story in a different setting. I would rather read some actual literature than this joke book.
Rating:
Summary: my god
Review: A Shakespeare for Gen-X. A vanguard for the Millenials. The prototype of all that I am and all that I hope I can achieve. His words melt like the butter left on my counter overnight until soft--not yet quite liquified--and satiny. To dwell in that cerebrum, to feast on that cranial capacity. To see all that he, the omnipotent one, sees. Ah, to be the divinity that is Pauly Shore.
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