Rating: 
Summary: Stream-of-consciousness claptrap
Review: But brilliantly executed! A fable for our time (actually many fables packed into one meta-fable, or Mecha-Fable). You may take umbrage with his questionable use of the word "shunt" in Chapter 7: "A Hailstorm of Mung", but overall the Le Petomaine of the writing set delights with a precarious balance of rococo stylings and byzantine structure.
Rating:
Summary: I haven't read this, but Neal and I had pancakes once
Review: Neal is one of the funniest people I have ever met, and I mean that in both the ha-ha sense and the peculiar sense. So order his book. I did! If you're reading this: Hi, Neal!
Rating:
Summary: Down with the canon!
Review: Brilliant, simply brilliant. And to know the grassroots work that went into this one, well, it reminds me of Richard Brautigan pounding the pavement in the Bay area with books filled with garden seeds for hungry minds. This opus marks the rebirth of literature. Down with the canon! Down with the canon! Long live Neal!
Rating:
Summary: He is Mr. T: A Powerful Man
Review: About 3 months ago, I was visiting a site that I always visit. It was Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency. However, on this visit, discussions were being held about a plan to institute a publisher under the name of McSweeneys Books. Their plan, they noted, was to start a company that could publish the best writers in America who don't usually get the shot they deserve. Neal Pollack is the first author to be published under this new imprint. And he is great. In 'The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature', every story is packed with vivid language that provides for the greatest book on the face of this earth. If you don't but this book, you are making the biggest mistake of your life. I am serious. Even the hand installed red satin page marker provides for an emotional reading experience. You will become part of this book. You will cry when you see this book. You will weep tears of joy when you lay your eyes on this beautiful work of literature and book design. Feast your eyes on this and buy it. Neal Pollack is Mr. T, and the A-Team is all up in the literature world. Look out for this man and the great works soon to be coming from McSweeney's, as well.
Rating:
Summary: Neal Pollack's Hubris is Maddeningly Attractive
Review: Hoo-Boy!I just turned the last page of this highly attractive tome! I must say, the publishers of this book really Quarked themselves to death with this one! However, the gorgeous exterior does NOT overshadow the pithapalooza inside. Mr. Pollack's own brand of sizzling wit, married with true heart, breathes new life into the staid autobiographical form. This reader's favorite anecdote has to be the story about Pollack's sweat-soaked chess match with Bea Arthur, in the wings of a theatre during a performance of "Mame." Or, on the other hand, is it the breathy way Pollack recalls a dew-dappled morn, splayed out in the Percale with Otto Premminger? Although I found the author's treatise on the importance of folic acid a little heavy-handed, this is, indeed, a must read! Pollack is a master.
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Summary: By Chapter 2, I was out of tears
Review: You will weep. This book is that good. I loved every word. I loved every mark of punctuation. I loved every space between the words and the marks of punctuation. Mr. Pollack is a gifted writer. He deserves your praise and, more important, your money...
Rating:
Summary: Move over Norton!
Review: Though I am far too cheap to buy Mr. Pollack's "anthology," I can say with hesitation that were I not cheap (and provided someone loaned me the money and placed a gun to my head stipulating that I use the money only to buy Mr. Pollack's book) it would be the first book I'd buy.
Rating:
Summary: Puh-lease!
Review: This is not post-grad humor, whatever that is (I'll tell you what it is, it's an oxymoron). This is not lacerating satire, nor a vicious attack on self-indulgent journalism, nor on Great White Authors (in whose company Neal Pollack rightly counts himself), nor--least of all is it this--is it a post-modern manifesto (post-modern??? think about how stupid you sound before you indulge your egotistical ear with literary jargon--you might start forgetting that words like "post" and "modern" have real meanings which, like nerds and prom queens, don't congeal when placed side by side)... nor is it anything else you people might come up with in the dark, lonely basements of your profound intellects!!!! Let the rest of the world (those lucky ignorant souls who've seen the sun within the past year) know the truth about Pollack: he's a pretty funny guy... at least he advocates onanism, which makes him totally legit in my eyes.
Rating: 
Summary: Starts funny, ends embarassing...
Review: Neal can be funny. I laughed out loud the first couple of tracks. His humor relies mostly on name dropping and rattling off absurd fads we've indulged. He is fairly astute when satrizing coffeehouse pseudo-intellectuals and vacuous hipsters...but...the joke gets old.
I read a couple of reviews claiming you have to be a grad. student to appreciate his humor. You must be kidding.
The only jokes that lie outside the realm of the average TV sitcom, are references to world authors and poets.
Even then, you're not missing much.
The last CD, his LIVE poetry performance is a session of pain. I was tortured by 27 tracks of egregious poetry. Because, it was recorded live, you could feel the tension in his audience. The nervous silence, couples on the edge of their seats listening for something funny to laugh at, just to make Pollack feel better. You might be wondering why I kept listening, am I a masochist?
No. Well, except for that week I was stuck in a Motel 6 on an acid binge, with two Brazilian soccer players and a tazer. But, not usually. No, I kept listening because I bought the audio CD's purely from their glowing reviews and his affliation with Eggers and gang and all the other current literary intellgentsia. I would be a masochist.... if I listened to it again.
Rating:
Summary: Quirky and brilliant
Review: I loved this book.
This is really post-graduate level humor. The myth of the Great White Author is fertile ground. He's the king of snarky, needle-sharp pokes. As it happens, great writers usually have a well-tuned sense of humor and they'd probably all get the joke. Parts of this book made me collapse with laughter. That doesn't happen often enough.
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