Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
"Wherever he is, David Rakoff is a fish out of water. Whether impersonating Sigmund Freud in a department store window during the holidays, climbing an icy mountain in cheap loafers, playing an evil modeling agent on a day-time soap opera, or learning primitive survival skills in the wilds of New Jersey, Rakoff doesn't belong. Nor does he try to.
Still, he continually finds himself off in the far-flung hinterlands of our culture, notebook or microphone in hand, hoping to conjure that dyed-in-the-wool New York condescension.".
"And Rakoff tries to be nasty; heaven knows nothing succeeds like the cheap sneer, but he can't quite help noticing that these are actual human beings he's writing about. In his attempts not to pull any punches, the most damaging blows, more often than not, land squarely on his own jaw - hilariously satirizing the writer, not the subject.".
"And therein lie David Rakoff's genius and his burgeoning appeal. The wry and the heartfelt join in his prose to resurrect that most neglected of literary virtues: wit."--BOOK JACKET.
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Previews available in: English
Showing 6 featured editions. View all 6 editions?
Edition | Availability |
---|---|
1 |
zzzz
|
2
Fraud: Essays
April 23, 2002, Broadway, Broadway Books
Paperback
in English
0767906314 9780767906319
|
eeee
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
3
Fraud
2002, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Electronic resource
in English
0767913094 9780767913096
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
4 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
5
Fraud
May 15, 2001, Random House Audio
Audio CD
in English
- Unabridged edition
0553714422 9780553714425
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
6 |
aaaa
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
Book Details
Edition Notes
Classifications
The Physical Object
ID Numbers
Source records
marc_openlibraries_sanfranciscopubliclibrary MARC recordLibrary of Congress MARC record
amazon.com record
marc_columbia MARC record
Work Description
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.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Links outside Open Library
Community Reviews (0)
Feedback?August 6, 2021 | Edited by New York Times Bestsellers Bot | Add NYT review links |
July 22, 2021 | Edited by Jenner | Add subjects, description, edition info |
July 16, 2021 | Edited by Jenner | Merge works |
July 31, 2020 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
December 10, 2009 | Created by WorkBot | add works page |