Spoiled Brats (including the story that inspired the major motion picture an American Pickle starring Seth Rogen)

November 10, 2014
In his newest story collection, humorist and screenwriter Rich (The Last Girlfriend on Earth) uses space travel, weird science, and talking animals to knock narcissistic millennials and New York high society down to size. In the futuristic "Semester Abroad," a college student studying on Saturn (where the food "tastes like straight ass") obsesses about her boyfriend while an interplanetary war decimates her host society. In "Rip," a brilliant retelling of the Rip Van Winkle fable, a 27-year-old low-life and aspiring blogger falls asleep for three years and wakes to find that his friends have become sashimi-eating yuppies. Two of the best entries feature a character named Simon Rich, usually in the role of brat-villain. "Animals" centers on a hamster whose family Rich, the "class clown" at a hoity-toity New York elementary school, has neglected to feed. And the novella-length "Sell Out" tells the story of a Polish immigrant who, after being preserved in brining fluid for a century, wakes in present-day Brooklyn and, with no help from his self-obsessed great-great-grandson Simon, becomes an overnight hipster celebrity. Throughout the collection, Rich skewers helicopter parenting, Gen-Me technophilia, and late-capitalist malaise with cruel precision. His occasionally stereotypical female characters and hackneyed resolutions are counterbalanced by on-point detailsâa club used to maul unhip elders, a post-genocide round of "Never Have I Ever"âthat pierce the heart. Agent: Daniel Greenberg, Levine Greenberg Literary Agency.

September 1, 2014
Humorist Rich's (The Last Girlfriend on Earth, 2013, etc.) latest collection is predictably funny, though sometimes digs deeper. Imagine a petty, oft-rejected writer complaining to his girlfriend about the "literary establishment": "They hate that I'm trying to do something new-it terrifies them!" It's a familiar rant to the girlfriend, who leaves, feigning frustration, only to place a call as soon as she hits the sidewalk, whispering, "He's onto us," and then...well, never mind. This review shouldn't ruin the punch line of Rich's "Distractions," for the pleasure of this and other pieces comes from watching each joke unfold. Unfortunately, this also suggests the book's larger hindrance: There's not much here besides the jokes. The result is amusing, sure, but slight, like watching an uneven episode of Saturday Night Live (where Rich once worked as a writer) in which some skits stick the landing, some provoke mild chuckles, and some offer the opportunity to use the bathroom or play with your phone. The nearly 80-page novella Sell Out suggests something much different, however. In it, a hardworking immigrant in early-20th-century Brooklyn is accidentally preserved in pickle brine, only to awaken 100 years later. He tracks down his great-great-grandson, the author himself, a self-absorbed, neurotic disappointment. This story is funny, but it gestures toward something deeper about the dreams we foist upon our family members and icons and also the ensuing disappointments. Elsewhere, Rich puts his jokes first, but in Sell Out, the characters are paramount, and readers ought to return to this story. Otherwise, once is the right amount of times to read most of these pieces-and given Rich's breezy style, once won't be a chore at all. Humor comes easily to Rich, but he's at his best when he pushes against the boundaries of his jokes.

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 1, 2014
When a book opens with a story narrated by a classroom hamster desperate to protect his family from a gang of second-graders, the reader knows to expect something unusual between the covers. Other stories in Rich's (Elliot Allagash, 2010) collection feature a self-absorbed college student spending her semester abroad on Saturn, a pushy mom in denial about her son's monstrousness (he is an actual monster), and a chimp who dreams of a career in sign language. In the longest story, Selling Out, Herschel Rich, a Jewish immigrant, falls into a vat of brine in a pickle factory and wakes up 100 years later, perfectly preserved. He moves in with his great-great grandson (named Simon Rich) and finds little to like about modern-day Brooklyn until he starts pickling cucumbers salvaged from a dumpster behind Whole Foods and realizes his own version of the American dream. Rich takes on many of the preoccupations of contemporary culture with sly wit and a wacky sensibility.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2014

What, you might ask, does enfant terrible Rich--former president of the Harvard Lampoon, Emmy-nominated writer for Saturday Night Live, author of comic essays and novels, and currently writing for Pixar--know about spoiled brats? He seems to nail them in stories featuring a young chimpanzee who would rather be a research animal than stick to the family grub-hunting business.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2014

Rich, former Harvard Lampoon president and former Saturday Night Live staffer, as well as an established author (Last Girlfriend on Earth) and New Yorker contributor, has penned a collection of stories about the narcissistic millennial generation and how they got that way. His hilarious characters include a family of hamsters trying to survive in the fifth-grade classroom of a private school, a chimp who longs to see the world, a demon who just wants to be himself, a pickle maker who is revived after fermenting for 100 years in brine, and the devil himself. Settings vary from Saturn to sewers to the North Pole. Yet every story rings true and provides a rueful reminder of how helicopter moms and conservative dads contribute to the success of their children. The stories parody life in the 21st century and clearly explain where we all went wrong. VERDICT Recommended as funny and insightful reading. [See Prepub Alert, 5/6/14.]--Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Libs., Providence

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.