The Double Life Is Twice as Good

May 11, 2009
The double life of the writer—the doggedly functional outer persona surrounding the neurotic inner core—comes through in this sparkling if scattershot collection from New York's gonzo scribe. In his forays into lifestyle journalism, Ames (Wake Up, Sir
) is perennially out of place whether among scary teens at a suburban gothic fest or vapid club hoppers in Manhattan's glitzy meatpacking district. He's ill at ease just being himself in memoiristic essays, from a European travelogue to an account of recent boxing stunts. His fictional alter egos are similarly out of their comfort zones; in the sly anti-noir “Bored to Death,” an Amesian writer poses as a PI and flounders when the lark becomes too real. As always, Ames's own bodily functions, baldness and angst take center stage—“Am I darker than Marilyn Manson?” he broods in a profile of the goth pied piper—along with his graphic sex scenes, which play out as detached procedurals in which he self-consciously monitors his partners for signs of orgasm This miscellany contains some weak items—college diary entries?—dredged out of a bottom drawer. But at his best, Ames still beguiles with his offbeat, defiantly hangdog sensibility. Photos.

May 1, 2009
A grab bag of fact and fiction from Ames (The Alcoholic, 2008, etc.), shot through with his trademark self-loathing.

The author's journalism proves that hating yourself is a smart strategy when it comes to celebrity profiles. By proudly broadcasting his shortcomings—too insecure, too unhip, too drunk—he not only does the required job of making stars like Lenny Kravitz and Marilyn Manson look good in Spin, but he gets his subjects to voice their own insecurities in ways they likely wouldn't with more straight-laced reporters. Still, Ames clearly prefers those outside the limelight, and he includes some crisp, funny portraits of subcultures like a goth festival and a club dedicated to corduroy. Sex is his preferred theme, and he earns plenty of comic mileage following hipsters prowling New York's Meatpacking District, or voicing his own neuroses, sometimes in disarming detail. (One explicit yet wryly tender piece describes his experience attending a class on improving his bedroom technique.) Some of the short stories display a sketched-out, simplistic approach to tenuous sexual connections, and at its most tedious the book includes excerpts from Ames' college diaries. Two pieces of fiction shine, however. The narrator of"A Walk Home" relates how he was shadowed by muggers while walking to his Brooklyn home, and Ames tartly captures the mess of thoughts shuttling through his mind—race relations, a busted romance, New York parking rules—before his act of self defense. The opening story,"Bored to Death," which is being adapted as a TV show for HBO, follows an insecure author who decides to sell himself as a private eye on Craigslist. Ames deliberately riffs on classic noir—the hero carries a copy of David Goodis's Black Friday with him—and the increasingly visceral violence not only makes for a powerful story, it exposes, in an Ames-ian way, how crime stories offer a kind of wish fulfillment for the angst-ridden writer.

Inconsistent but filled with its share of Ames classics.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 15, 2009
Ames ("Wake Up, Sir!") here offers new and previously published examples of his fiction, articles for magazines, and personal essays as well as a graphic work. The longest entry is a takeoff on a private eye caper; other topics include interviews with Goth figures and a boxing match in which he participated. One of his characters says, "I've put myself in weird positions and then milked it for humor"readers should note the double meaning of "weird positions," because many of these pieces are about unusual sexual encounters, told in great detail. There is humor here, but some entries come off as strange, such as those about his friends Mangina and Sproutie. VERDICT Ames writes with an engaging style, but there may be a bit too much sexual description for some tastes. For mature, not easily offended fans of the author.Gina Kaiser, Univ. of the Sciences Lib., Philadelphia

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2009
Humorist and performance artist Ames has parlayed his predilection for perversion into several successful books. The notoriously odd New Yorker revels in topics untoward, whether its loose bowels on a Paris boulevard or transsexuals in Times Square. This hilarious, often harrowing compendium of articles and essays finds him immersed in demented endeavors, from partying with the vapid and vacuous of Manhattans supertrendy Meatpacking District to attending Gothicfest 2005. (It occurs to me that Im inwardly apocalyptic, and these people are outwardly apocalyptic, he writes of his time among the black-clad.) Ames also interviews Marilyn Manson and Lenny Kravitz (hows that for ridiculous to sublime?), speaks before the Corduroy Appreciation Club, and partakes in a most useful seminar entitled Sex Tips to Drive Women Wild. Ames is at his best in self-deprecation mode, so diary entries penned as a narcissistic 19-year-old fall flat. He makes up for it with Bored to Death, an edgy noir featuring a woefully unqualified PI. Ames latest delirious display is certain to make his many fans snicker and squirm.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)