Fraud

Zusatztext "Combining journalistic tenacity! literary smarts! and a talent for gut-busting one-liners! Rakoff reports on his wilted salad days . . . His blend of withering wit and self-effacing humor makes these essays soar." – Entertainment Weekly "Rakoff possesses a sociologist's eye for places where today’s consoling myths reside." – New York Times "David Rakoff’s Fraud showcases his rapier wit! slashing in all directions with slice-of-life insights and cutting remarks! sometimes nicking himself with self-deprecation in his dexterous duello with the American experience." – Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Rakoff likes to paint himself as urbane to a fault! an outsider anywhere unpaved. But then! in the woods or on a mountaintop! he reveals himself! despite his searing and hilarious observations! to be a completely unrelenting romantic." –Dave Eggers! author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius "David Rakoff's hilarious! bittersweet stories are epic struggles–between smoky bars and the great outdoors! management and labor! Santa Claus and Sigmund Freud! New York versus everywhere else! and! not least! neighbor-to-the-North against South. Rakoff is such an American original it turns out he’s Canadian. Vive the brain drain!" -Sarah Vowell! author of Take the Cannoli Informationen zum Autor David Rakoff Klappentext From This American Life alum David Rakoff comes a hilarious collection that single-handedly raises self-deprecation to an art form. Whether impersonating Sigmund Freud in a department store window during the holidays, climbing an icy mountain in cheap loafers, or learning primitive survival skills in the wilds of New Jersey, Rakoff clearly demonstrates how he doesn't belong-nor does he try to. In his debut collection of essays, Rakoff uses his razor-sharp wit and snarky humor to deliver a barrage of damaging blows that, more often than not, land squarely on his own jaw-hilariously satirizing the writer, not the subject. Joining the wry and the heartfelt, Fraud offers an object lesson in not taking life, or ourselves, too seriously.Erla Steffansdottir makes her miving as a piano teacher, but is more widely known as one of Iceland's most noted Elf communicators. Her maps of Hidden People sites are on sale in tourist shops all around Iceland.She claims she has been seeing elves and Hidden People her whole life. I have been led to believe that my chances of meeting Erla would be slim to none, that she is difficult, that she will not be helpful, that she traffics in arbitrary rivalries in the Elf-spotting community. I'm inclined to believe the rumors after my initial encounter when I first call to set up the interview. Erla actually seems to be sobbing on the other end of the phone, all the while talking to me. Then again, in her defense, who actually picks up the phone in the middle of a crying jag? Besides, without having to push, she tells me to come the next day at four o'clock. I was expecting a wild hair, clanking jewelry, a tatterdemalion velvet cape from whose folds wafted the scent of incense, a house full of candles, dream catchers, cats, and bad art. Instead, I found a friendly if somewhat shy woman in her forties living in a lovely apartment on the top floor of a Reykjavik townhouse with a bay window. Aside from a tiny elf figure made of three painted stones, piled up snowman style outside her front door, Erla's house is decorated in the tasteful, middle class aesthetic one might expect of a piano teacher: landscape paintings, old furniture. The place is warm and cozy on a particularly blustering, windy day. Erla's friend Bjork is there to translate, although Erla's English is sufficient to slap me down at our rather awkward beginning. I ask when she first realized she could see Hidden People. "This is very stupid to ask when I see. When ...

Product details

• Authors: David Rakoff
• Publisher: Anchor Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 23.04.2002
• EAN: 9780767906319
• ISBN: 978-0-7679-0631-9
• No. of pages: 240
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 203 mm x 13 mm
• Subject: Fiction > Comic, cartoon, humour, satire > Humour, satire, satirical comedy