David Rakoff’s bestselling collection of autobiographical essays, Fraud, established him as one of today’s funniest and most insightful writers. Now, in Don’t Get Too Comfortable, Rakoff moves from the personal to the public, journeying into the land of unchecked plenty that is contemporary America. Rarely have greed, vanity, selfishness, and vapidity been so mercilessly and wittily skewered.
Somewhere along the line, our healthy self-regard has exploded into obliterating narcissism; our manic getting and spending have now become celebrated as moral virtues. Whether contrasting the elegance of one of the last flights of the supersonic Concorde with the good-times-and-chicken-wings populism of Hooters Air, working as a cabana boy at a South Beach hotel, or traveling to a private island off the coast of Belize to watch a soft-core video shoot—where he is provided with his very own personal manservant—Rakoff takes us on a bitingly funny grand tour of our culture of excess. He comes away from his explorations hilariously horrified.
At once a Wildean satire of our ridiculous culture of overconsumption and a plea for a little human decency, Don’t Get Too Comfortable shows that far from being bobos in paradise, we’re in a special circle of gilded-age hell.
Customer Reviews
Very Funny:
This book’s writer has some very humorous insights into how the luxury we all live in is often taken for granted and he finds a great way to portray that in his essays. I also like Lloyd Dangle’s latest book “Troubletown” as it presents the misguided adventures of our current leadership in a humorous yet insightful fashion as well. Troubletown Told You So: Comics that Could’ve Saved Us from this Mess
A quick read. Entertaining:
If your looking for a book that’s a quick read, light and entertaining…this is it. Some of the stories were a little too avant garde for my tastes but the book, overall, was funny and poignant and insightful.
I don’t know that I would get his other book, Fraud, but this one was worth the price and the time.
Having Fun with the English Language!:
I am in love with this guy’s sense of humor and wit! And he tells these hysterical tales with such a mastery of the english language and sentence structure as to be absolutely AMAZING! You know those books that have one long fabulous sentence which begins in one place and ends at a particularly surprising and devastating conclusion? Well, this guy does it over and over. And by the way, get the AUDIO version. His reading, the pauses, the deadpan voice are spectacular.
Last night, I listened to his take on Paris fashion shows. His material on Chanel and Karl Lagerfield is deadly. I truly gasped. I can’t believe he got away with it. I’ve replayed it at least 10 times.
I “discovered” David Rakoff by listening to NPR’s “This American Life”. This is great stuff!
Amusing:
My wife and I listened to it on a long drive and enjoyed it. Entertaining and insightful. It is well narrated, but the sound is not ideal for our car (too great a volume range for all the wind noise we experience at 75mph.) Red states may not enjoy it.
Sit back and relax.:
What can one say about runway models, applying for US citizenship and making creative gifts for friends that haven’t been said before? Well a lot apparently. Seemingly mundane and special events are given the Rakoff touch of both humour and keen observation. I would bet that some of his insomnia-filled nights were spent refining the words to their present artisan-like state. This was my first foray into the world of David Rakoff but I doubt my last.
Don’t Get Too Comfortable: The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems
