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Summary: What's not to love? Ames made an 8 hour flight to Rome fun!
Review: An eight-hour flight across the Atlantic is never fun. Right? Well, in most cases the answer is an emphatic "right!" But, there are a few exceptions, and one of those exceptions would read as follows, "An eight hour flight across the Atlantic is never fun, UNLESS you are reading "What's Not to Love? : The Adventures of a Mildly Perverted Young Writer" by Jonathan Ames." I am being honest when I tell you that on many occasions during the flight and the ensuing train ride to Venice, I encountered perplexed looks from the Italians as I roared out loud at Ames' riveting accounts of his personal adventures, triumphs, mishaps, idiosyncrasies, and follies.In a time when we are barraged with images of violence from home and abroad, the hilarious (and vivid) image of Mr. Ames sitting in an undersized bath tub rubbing his head with a scalp "invigorator," finding new uses for his curtains, and providing a forum for a friend of his to showcase his "artwork," are MOST welcome and treasured by the imagination. Ames doesn't just write, he pulls you into his world and lets you come along for one wild ride after another. For those of us who wear a tie everyday to our humdrum jobs and only dream about TRUE adventure, Jonathan Ames is our ONLY hope! I strongly suggest you buy this book. Simply put, spending a few bucks to buy your own copy is cheaper and infinitely safer than experiencing an Ames-like existence for yourself!! Thank you Mr. Ames for living your life so that the rest of us can experience it from the backseat.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for your mother, but....
Review: Are you uncomfortable with stories about sex, farts, poops, or foreign objects in your food? If so, then you ought to relax and learn to laugh about life. That is what this book brings to the table: bold, uncensored, honesty about many aspects of life that we are often too timid to talk about or even think about for very long. Remember the thoughts you had when you were 14 years old? The time you saw something you shouldn't have, but your mind took off into fantasy? Jonathan Ames tells his (or his alter ego's) tales of embarrassment, insecurity, bizarre fantasy, and strange experiences. Not only is this book full of oddities, it is extremely funny. Read the book. Then go check out Jonathan Ames in person. His readings are events not to be missed. Perhaps he'll even arm wrestle you for a free book.
Rating:
Summary: Not for your mother, but....
Review: Are you uncomfortable with stories about sex, farts, poops, or foreign objects in your food? If so, then you ought to relax and learn to laugh about life. That is what this book brings to the table: bold, uncensored, honesty about many aspects of life that we are often too timid to talk about or even think about for very long. Remember the thoughts you had when you were 14 years old? The time you saw something you shouldn't have, but your mind took off into fantasy? Jonathan Ames tells his (or his alter ego's) tales of embarrassment, insecurity, bizarre fantasy, and strange experiences. Not only is this book full of oddities, it is extremely funny. Read the book. Then go check out Jonathan Ames in person. His readings are events not to be missed. Perhaps he'll even arm wrestle you for a free book.
Rating:
Summary: Arrested Development? I think not!
Review: As a transplanted New Yorker living in, of all places, Montana, I recommend this book with all the urgency of a too-full bladder. Though it likely helps to be in possession of even a partial set of male organs to fully integrate this work, I still think there's something for everthing in Ames. Montaigne could (and did) write in great detail about his intestines, genitalia, phobias and other personal concerns that he considered the stuff of life. But Ames is a hell of a lot funnier, and alive to boot! After a decade and a half of the 'men's movement' finally we have real insight into the movements of men... Thank you, J. Ames!
Rating: 
Summary: Minor attempt at raunchiness
Review: Confused and rushed writing style peppered with gender-bending sexploits for shock value. "What's Not to Love" is watery, contrived and self conscious. Comparisons to Roth are more than generous. Check out David Sedaris' "Barrel Fever" for real humour.
Rating: 
Summary: A Thank You and a Nice Review from Publishers Weekly
Review: Dear Good and Potential Book-buyer, Thank you for coming to take a glance at my new book. Should you purchase What's Not to Love?, I hope you enjoy it and that after reading it, you won't think too poorly of me. Here, in the rest of my author's box on Amazon, I'd thought I'd type in the bulk of a favorable review I received from Publishers Weekly. I know it's pathetic of me to do such a thing, but here goes: From Publishers Weekly, March 21,2000: "...Ames's columns reveal a sweet, wide-open soul, despite their outre subject matter. And make no mistake, the matter is very outre. The first column of 33 (and an epilogue) arranged in loose chronological order concerns how Ames, who entered puberty only on the cusp of turning 16, felt the need before then to hide his "little," hairless penis from his high school tennis teammates and coach, and how he ran to his mother's bed to show her his first erection. Further columns relate his experiences with flatulence, diarrhea, enemas, VD, prostitutes, first love and so on; in each case, Ames details his adventures with humor, poking incessant fun at himself and his obsessions. Occasionally his comic timing can seem forced, and the humor shtick; in fact, Ames is a performance artist as well as a writer. But more often the book is laugh-aloud funny and delightfully wry. Above all, though, it's suffused with a wonderful compassion and sense of tolernace -- Ames likes to hang with transvestites and considers his closest friend an amputee misfit whose claim to fame is the Mangina, an artificial vagina he wears onstage. There are strong echoes of Henry Miller here, in Ames's embrace of the human condition in all its variants, but Ames is his own man, his own writer (with an elegant, assured prose style) -- and deserves hordes of his own fans."
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Summary: This Guy is a Real Writer
Review: Forget Eggers and Sedaris, Ames is the real deal. Funny, sweet, and unpretentious. Eggers is so overtly clever that he makes you sick, and Sedaris is humorous mainly because of his speaking style. Ames is a real risker taker and a master prose stylist. I cannot recommend this book enough, especially if you are trapped in an M.F.A. program in creative writing. Breathe deeply of some real writing here.
Rating:
Summary: This Guy is a Real Writer
Review: Forget Eggers and Sedaris, Ames is the real deal. Funny, sweet, and unpretentious. Eggers is so overtly clever that he makes you sick, and Sedaris is humorous mainly because of his speaking style. Ames is a real risker taker and a master prose stylist. I cannot recommend this book enough, especially if you are trapped in an M.F.A. program in creative writing. Breathe deeply of some real writing here.
Rating:
Summary: I laughed, I cried
Review: Funny, funny, funny. I'm recommending it to all my friends, even women, and especially the squeamish ones. I'm amazed at the extent of exposure of the most horrible (ie, yucky, social unacceptable) aspects of Ames's life... how far will this guy go to make us laugh? It's all worth it, in my opinion. Bravo, courageous Ames!
Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: Hard to believe Ames could make some of these topics so comical. And he puts them forth in such a way that you're not sure if you're laughing AT him or WITH him. But you ARE laughing and that's the point. Good fun for those with a politically incorrect sense of humor. All others, beware!
Also recommended - NO ONE'S EVEN BLEEDING and DELANO
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