Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious...
Review: A non-stop decent into hell, with plenty of laughs along the way. Like Confederacy of Dunces, this book had me laughing out loud on the subway every morning. A fast, enjoyable read.
Rating: 
Summary: Something Wild!
Review: A wild ride across the U.S.A. in the tradition of Kerouac, FFS is the tale of a twenty-something who seems to fall for the worst women he can find. While the story is a bit over the top, the passionate prose and intense exploration of emotion will make you acutely feel the narrator's joys and sorrows. Not for people who don't enjoy the F word (and other such terms) liberally sprinkled throughout their books, the novel is still a fascianting addition to today's literary landscape. While other hot, young authors try to impress you with their detached, hipper than thou prose, Lasner's book is one that will really offend your sensibilities, in the best way possible.
Rating: 
Summary: The Purest of Bastards
Review: Couldn't disagree more with Aaron from Chicago. I found this book to be a knock your socks off stunner. This book exposes a side of "maleness" that most men wouldn't dare show. Think of a man who is desperate to be in love, cannot function without a relationship and is in a constant state of anxiety. Sounds like the stereotype that is put forth about women, right? That is what makes this such a one of a kind read--you see feelings expressed by a man that most men would deny they even have--and certainly wouldn't show if they did.
I found Lasner's descriptions of his emotions and vulnerabilities deeply affeting. And yes, I loved the references to Joyce that are snuck into the book. I think that the problem some people have with this book is that it is offensive, and thus they criticize it in order to deal with their own feelings of being offended. Yes, the book does have a hard edge, and the "confessional" tone does make for many uncomfortable moments for both writer and reader. But overall, I think that this novel is an all too rare example in today's publishing marketplace of a book with a heart, albeit a broken one.
Rating:
Summary: Relentlessly Daring
Review: I don't think there are many books like this today. Most fiction that I read has easy characters, easy events, easy endings. This book does not. The narrator--who shares the same name as the author--spends 300 odd pages spilling his soul about some "troublesome" relationships he has been in. You may love him or hate him, but I couldn't deny that this book was a powerful statement, like a man in the confessional booth. I happened to find the language in the novel imaginative and original, with a music to it that is very affecting. Is this book for everyone? No. But those of you who have been in desperate situations, in love with someone whom you know in your soul to be the wrong person, will identify with everything that is said here. Lasner has an original voice, and I hope writes more in the future. I would like to see where he goes.
Rating:
Summary: The new direction of literature--or at least it should be
Review: I was blown away by this book, an exciting mixture of pathos, humor and despair. The narrator lets you inside his head--and gut--as he recounts in a no holds barred style his encounters with three women.
While the book is very much in your face--hence the title--there is a sweet, almost desperate vibe that runs through the work which helps you to feel the narrator's pain and hopelessness at his own situation, one of, ironically, his own creation. I won't give away the ending, but instead of a tidy resolution, there is a realistic look at what it means to be in love, and how life often does not go the way we plan it to. Excellent book from what I believe to be a first-time author.
Rating: 
Summary: bad
Review: I'm glad i read this for free in the bookstore. Though i can sympathize with a lot of the author's sentiments, he doesn't tell me anything i don't already know or even do anything interesting with the writing aside from a few (VERY few) moments of decent description. But even in these sections he's a hack, and there are plenty of better ones out there. He is NOT a new-age poet or an amazing writer like some other reviewers have said- stylistically, this guy doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Kerouac, or even Henry Miller, and his allusions to Joyce unintentionally get the biggest laughs in the book. At one point he rips off the last paragraph of "The Dead" (poorly) and then tries to metaphorically connect the snowfall to his own tears. And half the book is taken up with throwaway repetitions like "why did I love her? Why was she being like this? I loved her. I didn't. I did." If you think this guy's good, or if you think that he's pioneering some kind of new "conversational/confessional" approach to literature, you need to read more. If you like this book for its witty harshness and misanthropy, read Hunter S. Thompson and then find your way back to Miller. If you like the soul-baring confessional aspect, you can read Dave Eggers, but should eventually find your way back to any number of superior writers. This book isn't innovation; it's not even good imitation.
Rating:
Summary: Not interesting enough to be annoying
Review: In the words of Dave Eggers, "...the lives of people in their early twenties... are very difficult to make interesting, even when they seemed interesting to those living them at the time." After 200 pages, I still couldn't care less about the narrator or the people in his life. If this is where American literature is headed, then the national average must be an 8th grade reading level and a 10th grade sophistication. There is nothing interesting whatsoever about this novel. To potential readers, spend your 15 bucks elsewhere, for example, on Nick Hornsby or Charles Bukowski.
Rating:
Summary: Brutually Honest and Riveting Read
Review: In what may or may not be a memoir, "Robert Lasner" narrates the story of his trials with three women. Despite an optimistic beginning, Lasner's relationships never seem to end well and his quest for love turns into a quest for eternal misery. His fast paced storytelling and his brutually honest reveal all style keeps you fixated throughout, and I really enjoyed his descriptions of the nightmare of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Overall, its a good view inside the head of someone who keeps getting into bad relationships, while at the same time trying to figure a way out.
Rating:
Summary: Robert, please tell my mother you're not a pornographer.
Review: Last summer some lady in a bookstore in Florida seems to have convinced all of your in-laws that you are nothing but a common pornographer. My mother felt uncomfortable even discussing it. I never even heard her say the word "pornographer" before. Good thing she didn't know that your book has LESBIANS in it. It was quite a shock and I don't think I could handle hearing her say the word "LESBIANS" for the first time. She's very old and it's really just not necessary at this stage in her life. I told her that you're not really a pornographer but it was hard to convince her without actually having read your book. I think she might actually know something about the title. I guess that even if it were true, we've never had a pornographer in the family before, or at least not one who published, so at least that's something new to not talk about. That's good enough for me.
Rating:
Summary: Like Henry Miller, but punk
Review: Reading FFS reminded me of when I read Henry Miller's Tropic of Capricorn way back when, except instead of moving from New York to Paris, the protagonist wanders between New York, the deep south of Louisiana, and a fictional midwestern state. It wanders from woman to occupation to rental apartment with no purpose, other than to capture the feeling that many of us did the same thing with no purpose. In that, it's perfect in its detail and ability to nail exactly what it felt like to be in this slightly punk, slightly modernist life. It was a great read and I look forward to seeing more from Lasner.
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