Little New York Bastard: A Memoir

Rating:
Summary: so true it hurts -- a good read
Review: Michael Dylan Raskin (MDR) hates his snore of a first name, all of Flushing, Queens (wheer he has been his whole life) and pretty much everyone he has ever met. He needs to get out of New York NOW.

So after saying a tumultuous goodbye to his mom -- who "insults his freedom" by saying "it's not the song, it's the singer" and that wherever 22-y-o MDR goes it will be the same --- he gets in his car and drives to the Midwest -- except he ends up near Chicago, another vast urban space.

Thus begins a three-day odyssey of a little NY bastard out of New York. MDR knows one girl there -- Mary, who works at a Starbucks in a little whitewashed burb called Elmhurst (which ironically is the name of a neighborhood near Flushing, Queens) and she is going to meet him in 2 days when she has time off. In the meantime, MDR explores Chicago and mulls over his life -- we find what happened to his dad and his dog, and neither event is pretty.

A lot of it is funny --- how he has iron-deficiency so, after the 'financial sodomy', as he calls it, of paying $21 to enter a museum, he takes a nap in an exhibit and fights with a security guard when she tells him he can't.

He runs into a snotty career girl in a suit and pumps and says "She is like green slime. On second thought, that's insulting to green slime. I apologize. I hope she lost her job that day."

Or when he goes to a lame club and says "the music was so loud I could hardly hear myself complain."

So what is an iron-deficient little NY bastard to do? It hinges on a talk with Mary, which has a plethora of events leading up to it. Read this and see.

Rating:
Summary: I gave it a shot......
Review: o.k., I purchased this book upon recommendation via this website.
I was able to totally sympathize with the characters angst
because I feel it myself, however, I kept waiting and waiting
for something to happen. I found myself reading faster so that
something would happen, and it did'nt. I was bored to tears
with the mundane details and I understood every detail because
I've been to the towns Mike referred to and have walked down the
streets and in the parks that he talked about.
I spent most of the book eyeballing the other stack of good books resting on my nightstand, waiting to be read.
The animosity expressed in his language throughout the book
toward other human beings was almost intolerable, although I'm
sure he was just trying to get that "N.Y. thing" across -
perhaps that's why I have no desire to go back there. Chicago
is the best city in the country anyway.......


Rating:
Summary: Less is More
Review: There are a lot of books that don't stick with you; books that you never really think about again after reading. I read a lot of those books, and sadly, they are the majority. LITTLE NEW YORK BASTARD is a good example of a book that sticks with you over time, and one you think about in your head constantly after reading. The author does a fine job of taking a simplistic story and making it much more in depth and interesting than it should be. It should be noted that the subject matter with which this book deals has been tackled many times on paper before: Ahead of his time, too intelligent for the rest of the world, neurotic, romantic, lonely young man flees home only to realize that he can't find what he's looking for anywhere else, and ultimately decides that home is where he's most happiest after all. But the voice and passion with which Raskin writes is unparalleled by any contemporary writer writing today. This book is certainly not the most polished nor sophisticated work in print, far from it, but that's where its magic lies. It's gritty, mean, raw and unapologetic, just as its title implies.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: If you read this book expecting Salinger ... don't!
Review: When I first heard that M. Dylan Raskin was writing a memoir, my immediate reaction was "He is only like 25 years old -- what could he possibly have experienced worth writing a memoir about?" So, admittedly, I approached the book prepared to read and dismiss. However, when I found myself at a turning point in the story, bawling my eyes out on the express bus to work, I realized that you truly cannot judge a book by its cover.

I really enjoyed this book. I read it in a single day and found myself reading it at my desk at work because I was so caught up in it. LNYB really evoked a sense of nostalgia in me ... nostalgia for childhood, blanket forts, crisp Octobers and the days when your parents paid the pizza delivery man.

If you approach this book expecting Salinger ... don't. There is little comparison beyond the 20-something malcontented protagonists. Underneath the protagonist's jaded exterior, there is a glimmer of hope and naivete that even the most cynical of readers will find endearing.

I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely Worth Buying
Review: While this book doesn't have the rawness of other similar down-and-out underground urban classics like Arthur Nesesian's The F**k-up or The Losers' Club by Richard Perez, it remains a wonderful, passionately written, totally entertaining coming-of-age story of a 'loser' who realizes he can't escape from himself no matter which city he winds up in: New York or Chicago. The main character, with all his ranting and raving, psuedo-intellectual posturing, petty likes and dislikes, and half-baked ideas, certainly comes across as very familiar -- and is always engaging. In the end, I truly enjoyed this novel, found it hilarious, and would certainly recommend it to all my friends. One up for M. Dylan Raskin! Also recommended: Dogrun, [e-mail] by Tom Grimes