Fraud

Rakoff, David

ISBN 10: 0385658311 / ISBN 13: 9780385658317

Published by Doubleday, 2001

About this Item

Book is tight, clean, and unmarked-Two pages dog eared-Jacket has a few marks-" David Rakoff has a gift for exposing the humor and the pathos behind both cherished cultural traditions and hot social trends and obsessions. FRAUD brings together Rakoff's peerless commentaries for "This American Life," clever parodies and other pieces created for Salon, (all rewritten and updated for the book), and new essays inspired by Rakoff's most recent adventures as a peripatetic reporter. The deep-seated belief that he is a fraud lends both a hilarious edge and a whimsical poignancy to Rakoff's writing. In "In New England, Everyone Calls You Dave," an account of an assignment that requires him to don Timberlands for a trek up Mount Manadock, Rakoff is struck by the ironic realization that "the shoes I wouldn't be caught dead in might actually turn out to be the shoes I am caught dead in." In "Including One Called Hell," Rakoff recreates the bizarre experience of attending a weekend retreat at which action star Steven Segal imparts his wisdom on "Cultivating Compassion and Clarity." "The Best Medicine" takes listeners to the Sixth Annual U.S. Comedy Art Festival in Aspen, an event Rakoff concludes is intended to "ratchet up comedy to the status of moral virtue." Ever willing to expose his own quirks and fantasies, Rakoff also offers a delightfully revealing diary of his stint as an ersatz Freud in the windows of Barney's department store one Christmas and a candid assessment of his success as a student at a wilderness survival school. Like David Sedaris, Rakoff explores the odd and the ordinary events of life and brings them to life in essays that are funny, sad, piercing, and wise.".

Seller Inventory # 16841

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Fraud
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385658311
• ISBN 13: 9780385658317
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

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.