Alternadad: The True Story of One Family's Struggle to Raise a Cool Kid in America by Neal Pollackrating: *** of ***** stars
I bought this for the Peter Bagge cover. Remember Hate comix? Remember Weirdo when Bagge took over from Robert Crumb? No? Oh, you whippersnappers. Born too late to enjoy any of the really cool stuff, like Space Food Sticks, eight-track stereos, DeLoreans, Bicentennial Barbie, and the original, really big Lip Smackers.
Anyway. The book. OK, the cover jumped out at me, so I picked it up and started to read. Right away I noticed that the action takes place in Rogers Park in Chicago. Peter Bagge and Chicago? Sold!
Unfortunately, the author and his wife waste no time in moving out of Rogers Park, first to Baltimore or Philadelphia or some other east coast city that isn't Boston or New York. And then they make matter worse by moving to Texas. Well, Austin, actually. Or near it. Where they enjoy and yet revile the trendiness that is almost-Austin.
Then their kid ends up in a day care where he spends a lot of time biting another kid.
And I'm all like, dude! Yes, you! Mr. Don't Want To Be Bourgeois! Biting != cool! Discipline your fucking kid!
And so I must reluctantly conclude that the book is actualy not all that good. And that the cover is better than the book. Which just goes to show you the cliché is right.
On the up side, this book makes me feel like a great parent. I'm really pretty mediocre. I mean, here I am with my face in the laptop AGAIN.
But these people? Are pathetic. Which means that I end up looking really great in comparison. So I wouldn't say I completely wasted my money.
And the cover really is great.
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OK, so now are you going to have a giveaway contest, so that one of the lucky us-es can get that book?
ReplyDeleteFA
Anyone who calls/considers themselves alterna-ANYTHING and is not being ironic about it is automatically dead to me. Unfortunately, that includes a good 50-60% of the population down here, depending what part of town you're in.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I REALLY miss those giant LipSmackers. I remember how ripped off I felt when I first realized they had shrunk to less than 1/4 their former size but had NOT been reduced in price. Bastards!
Badger -- that "reduce the size but not the price" strategy is what some candy bar company did when they came out with their low-calorie chocolate bar. I heard an interview with the company's PR person.
ReplyDeleteInterviewer: But these are only half the calories of the regular candy bar because they are half the size.
PR flack: Um-hmm.
Int: Yet they cost the same as the regular bar.
PRF: Um-hmm.
Int: Why?
PRF: Because that's what people want to pay for a candy bar.