Fraud

Starred review from May 1, 2001
A talented new humorist springs onto the scene: Rakoff has a rapier wit, slashing in all directions with slice-of-life insights and cutting remarks, sometimes nicking himself with self-deprecation in his dexterous duello with the American experience. Rakoff is a public radio personality, and his first collection contains his material from public radio's This American Life and from Outside and Salon, as well as a few new pieces. Assigned to visit a New Age retreat for a Buddhism workshop led by Steven Seagal, to look for elves in Iceland, to attend the Aspen Comedy Festival and to train at a wilderness survival camp, Rakoff endures urban dweller misadventures with a spin that occasionally remind one of Fran Lebowitz, such as during his hike up a New Hampshire mountain: "If only the mist would part to reveal a beautiful, beautiful parking lot, I will get through this." Outstanding is "Lush Life," a look at the delusions and despair of low-paid NYC editorial assistants, "complicit believers in the mythic glamour of a literary New York" yet forced to subsist on "salmonella-friendly" free snacks in "unhappening bars" where they can avoid former classmates with six-figure incomes. Rakoff can be as funny as Dave Barry or George Carlin, but he adds a touch of pathos, peeling away poignant layers unexplored by other humor writers. The author's woodcut illustrations are barely adequate, since the book cries out for Ralph Steadman art. The book cries out, period. (May 15) Forecast: With national print advertising and a national author tour in the offing, plus his radio exposure, Rakoff will quickly find his readership and they him. The crude pink marker scrawl of the title will make the book an eye-catching item in store displays.

Starred review from June 1, 2001
Though replete with wit (Rakoff clearly prefers to provoke a smirk rather than a belly laugh), this book should not be relegated to the humor shelves. And despite the frequent use of first person, indeed the starring role the author often grants himself, most readers won't think of this as autobiography, much less memoir. Journalist, actor, and radio commentator Rakoff has gathered in his first book what can best be described as essays on contemporary culture. The only real theme is his attitude self-deprecating when not self-doubting but no more enchanted with the rest of humanity and the contrivance of his position as irreconcilable outsider. By his own estimate, Rakoff is too thin, gay, Jewish, Canadian, and devoutly urban, while these essays find him climbing a New Hampshire mountain on Christmas day, reporting on the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, playing a modeling agent on a daytime soap, tagging along with Austrians invited to teach in the New York City public school system, and so forth. These situations, however, are mere excuses to expose small parts of the world in which we live. Rakoff's real talent, and there is plenty of it on display here, resides in his powers of social and personal analysis in the guise of description. Highly recommended for general collections. Eric Bryant, "Library Journal"

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2001
Rakoff--urban, gay, Canadian, and Jewish--exposes fraud in a variety of guises in his tightly wound and hilarious essays, including his own sense of imposture while on assignment in a small New England town at Christmas. A " Salon" writer and a member of the smart, witty, and hip National Public Radio coterie of David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, and Ira Glass, with whom he collaborated on " This American Life," Rakoff, charming like a snake, writes with verve, irony, and insight, cajoling readers into recognizing the stale, even absurd assumptions underlying so much of what society deems normal, desirable, and worthy of acclaim. Whether he's recalling his self-defining experience on a kibbutz or the whiny but lapdog-eager life of a New York publishing assistant, or observing Steven Seagal at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies (where Rakoff discerns "narcissism posing as altruism"), or chronicling his brief appearance on a soap opera (acting is his "hobby"), or venomously critiquing contemporary movie humor, Rakoff is unfailingly on target.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)