Rating: 
Summary: Never, EVER ask this man what he's doing for a follow up
Review: "Et Tu, Babe" is, in essence, a sequel to a book (Leyner's brilliantly bizarre "My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist") which wasn't actually a coherant novel. Critics embraced the former, but what was Leyner going to do for an encore.... Whoo boy. What he did was write a 1000 mph masterpiece about a megalomaniac author named Mark Leyner who wrote a masterpiece called "My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist", steals Lincoln's Morning Breath, performs his own internal organ surgeries, gets a set of bodygaurds who fulfill his every paranoic whim, and is sentenced to having one item permanently removed from his household every month by the FBI. Of course, there's more, but no review could possibly get to it. A little more accessible than "Gastroenterologist", but no less insane. Hysterically perfect.
Rating:
Summary: Mark Leyner has Lost His Mind
Review: "Can I help you?"
"Yes," she said. "There's a new album out, I'm not sure what the name of it is... but it's the sound of two men lifting tremendous weights. I wish I could remember the name of it... oh, I was just talking to someone about it."
--from "Et Tu, Babe"
If you were insulted by this paragraph, Mark Leyner isn't for you. If you sat there going, "what is going on here?"... Mark Leyner isn't for you.
If you wondered whether the weights are Nautilus or barbell, Mark Leyner is for you. The premise of the book is essentially that Mark Leyner has gone completely insane after the sales of his last, resoundingly popular volume. He's assembled a crack marketing team (1-900-T-Leyner) to promote his heavily-armed book tours. He practices self surgery. He has a book of nude photographs of himself, taken with a defense spy sattelite. And he gets a tatoo in radioactive ink on his internal organs to impress xray technicians.
If it is to be said that this book has a plot, the plot is this: Mark Leyner is avoiding the FBI after stealing a vial of Abraham Lincoln's morning breath.
You now know all you need to buy this book. In fact, you probably already know whether it'll be dog-eared and read fanatically to your friends (mine is) or put it on the 'eventually pile.
(c) 1996 Danyel Fishe
Rating:
Summary: Never, EVER ask this man what he's doing for a follow up
Review: "Et Tu, Babe" is, in essence, a sequel to a book (Leyner's brilliantly bizarre "My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist") which wasn't actually a coherant novel. Critics embraced the former, but what was Leyner going to do for an encore.... Whoo boy.
What he did was write a 1000 mph masterpiece about a megalomaniac author named Mark Leyner who wrote a masterpiece called "My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist", steals Lincoln's Morning Breath, performs his own internal organ surgeries, gets a set of bodygaurds who fulfill his every paranoic whim, and is sentenced to having one item permanently removed from his household every month by the FBI. Of course, there's more, but no review could possibly get to it. A little more accessible than "Gastroenterologist", but no less insane. Hysterically perfect.
Rating:
Summary: Surfing Lava while Flexing My Muscles
Review: A novel written while needing to pee very badly. Wacky, fast-paced, very short. Like a squash ball bounced of his oiled pectorals, Leyner's novel of narcissism and nudity carooms around the inside of your skull, leaving little untouched. Pick it up on a flight to Los Angeles, and look at the beautiful people in a whole new way.
Rating: 
Summary: a must read for the "well read"
Review: good,good book.if you want to laugh,sometimes at yourself,sometimes at society,sometimes at the author,then read this book. Personally,i took my time reading this one.only because i wanted to make it last.i read it while in a detox in portland,maine.when i left the building,i dont know for sure if it was because i had just read a very funny,thought prevoking,exhilirating book,or if it was because i was clean;what i do know was i was changed.do your brain a favor.give it a workout.read this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Et Tu, Bah
Review: Having read, My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist, I had high hopes for Et Tu, Babe. However, other than a few hilarious venues(the "everything" sandwich, visceral tattoos, and the Schwarzeneggerization of America), this was a disappointment. I wound up skimming through too much tedium. I suspect Leyner had personal problems midway (the Arlene Scene) as the 2nd half of the book d r a g s. Nun thee less, Leyner when he's on is one of the funniest orgasmic writers around.
Rating:
Summary: Et Tu, Bah
Review: Having read, My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist, I had high hopes for Et Tu, Babe. However, other than a few hilarious venues(the "everything" sandwich, visceral tattoos, and the Schwarzeneggerization of America), this was a disappointment. I wound up skimming through too much tedium. I suspect Leyner had personal problems midway (the Arlene Scene) as the 2nd half of the book d r a g s. Nun thee less, Leyner when he's on is one of the funniest orgasmic writers around.
Rating:
Summary: Good but not his best
Review: I first came across Mark Leyner by way of his most recent composition, The Tetherballs of Bougainville. Having devoured it faster than any book I have ever read I craved more. I picked up Et Tu, Babe and had high expectations. Expectations that were mostly rewarded but where Tetherballs flys this one just drives really fast. I found myself getting a little bored with Et Tu in parts. It was relentlessly manic in a way that made it become tiring in parts. Don't get me wrong, this was a very funny book, it's just that while Tetherballs repeatedly extracted convulsive fits somewhere beyond laughter out of my body, Et Tu only made me laugh out loud. I recommend reading this one before Tetherballs for this reason. I plan to read My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist next. (By the way, while it is not very similar in style or content the last most hilarious book I read was Conspiracy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, I highly recommend it for those with a taste for the eccentric and a love of dark humour a la Leyner or Hunter S. Thompson)
Rating:
Summary: It was great.
Review: I had never read any of Mark Leyner before this, but I saw "Et Tu Babe" in the store, and out of curiousity, I picked it up. From the first paragraph, Leyner had me engrossed. There was never a dull moment; every sentence seemed to "shock" or at least somewhat amuse me. It took me only 2 days to read the book. I would have to say that the book's weakness was that it really didn't have a plot, but still it was great and I look forward to reading another of Leyner's I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who likes bizarre-type stuff.
Rating:
Summary: It was great.
Review: I had never read any of Mark Leyner before this, but I saw "Et Tu Babe" in the store, and out of curiousity, I picked it up. From the first paragraph, Leyner had me engrossed. There was never a dull moment; every sentence seemed to "shock" or at least somewhat amuse me. It took me only 2 days to read the book. I would have to say that the book's weakness was that it really didn't have a plot, but still it was great and I look forward to reading another of Leyner's I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who likes bizarre-type stuff.
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