Fraud - Rilegato

Rakoff, David

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0385658311 ISBN 13: 9780385658317

Casa editrice: Doubleday, 2001

Riassunto

A frequent contributor to the New York Times magazine, Outside, Salon, and GQ, and a regular on Public Radio International's "This American Life,"David Rakoff's debut collection of essays is simultaneously laugh-out-loud funny and take-your-breath-away poignant.

David Rakoff is a fish out of water. Whether he finds himself on assignment climbing Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire — donning a pair of Timberlands for his trek, only to realize with horror that "the shoes I wouldn't be caught dead in might actually turn out to be the shoes I am caught dead in." — sitting quietly impersonating Sigmund Freud in a department store window...for a month, or musing on the unique predicament of being undetectably Canadian in New York City ("...what's more spicy than being Canadian, I ask you?"), Rakoff has a gift for exposing life's humour and pathos. Fraud takes us places even we didn't know we wanted to go: expeditions as varied as a search for elves in Iceland, a foray into soap opera acting, or contemplating the gin-soaked olive at the bottom of a martini glass.

With the sharpest of eyes, David Rakoff explores the odd and ordinary events of life, spotting what is unique, funny and absurd in the world around him. But for all its razor-sharp wit and snarky humor, Fraud is also, ultimately, an object lesson in not taking life, or oneself, too seriously.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

"With Fraud, David Rakoff manages to successfully pass himself off as the wittiest and most perceptive man in the world." —David Sedaris, author of Me Talk Pretty One Day

"Rakoff is such an American original it turns out he's Canadian." —Sarah Vowell, author of Take the Cannoli

“Rakoff defies both assimilation and easy categorization. It is [his] multi-faceted alienation that both contributesd to Rakoff’s considerable skill as a cultural commentator and gives Fraud, his first collection of essays, its title...Rakoff’s preferred subject is himself. His simultaneous self-absorption and alientation are the source of much of the book’s humour...There is a core of pain and distance that Rakoff explores with a gentle but incisive hand...Readers will certainly laugh, but it is the deeper insights into Rakoff himself that will linger...Fraud is a perversely funny and deeply, if oddly, affecting read.” —Quill & Quire

“The best essays in Fraud are those in which Mr. Rakoff cuts himself down to size.” —Isabel Vincent, National Post

“[Rakoff] is sent on a remarkably diverse series of assigments...and, in the grand tradition of travel writing, pieces together a droll portrait of each experience. But where peripatetic writers like Evelyn Waugh tended to animate their stories with ridicule of the locals, Rakoff’s eye is far more gentle, forgiving, and, underneath, much crueller...the most entertaining parts of Fraud are the fish-out-of-water assignments...He can turn a phrase, this Rakoff...much can be forgiven in a book so clever and funny.” —Dean Allen, National Post

“The last essay in the book, 'I Used to Bank Here, but That Was Long, Long Ago', is about Rakoff’s recovery from cancer when he was 22 and his decision, 13 years later, to go off in search of the seven samples of sperm he donated at the time...As good as many of the essays in Fraud are, this one is significantly better. It is the bravest and the most candid.” —Montreal Gazette

“It's Rakoff's great joy in poking fun at his own quirks that makes this collection so delicious...It may be that no one gets a bigger kick out of Rakoff's wacky adventures than Rakoff himself. But the rest of us aren't too far behind.” —Amy Reiter, Salon.com

L'autore:

David Rakoff has written for numerous publications including the New York Times Magazine, Outside, Salon, Slate, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, and the radio program "This American Life" from Public Radio International. Raised in Toronto, he now calls New York city home.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Doubleday
• Data di pubblicazione: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0385658311
• ISBN 13: 9780385658317
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 240