Much appreciation to Vinnie the Vole and TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Mark S. Brand for the quite fine words, not to mention the Judy Blume comparison, in their review of You Can Make Him Like You. Many drinks soon. And big thanks.
"The best way to describe the book, without ruining it for you, is to say it’s like Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret or Then Again, Maybe I Won’t for new dads. Or one of those other Judy Blume books that you discovered right about the time you started to get acne and notice members of the opposite sex, and books like that made you think holy shit, someone else did go through this before, and they lived to tell about it, and not only are they telling about it, they’re telling the TRUTH about it, which is even more crucial. I kept thinking as I was reading it: this should be required reading for new dads, no, expectant dads… no, all men…"
Vinnie the Vole, a.k.a., TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Mark Brand has written a super thoughtful and much appreciated review of 99 Problems, continuing a trend of reviewers focusing less, though not entirely ignoring, on the running and writing elements of the collection and instead finding a thread with as much or maybe more meaning to them, in this case the push and pull of wanting to be a "good" father even as we want to be everything else as well, in this case a runner, and writer, always searching for the creative spark. Many thanks bro, and for the rest of you, some excerpt.
"Admiration and pity are muddy emotions to pair with each other, but that’s exactly what this sort of narrative demands. Today’s Good Dad is an object of both. Beneath this is the place inside a real man where the static builds between how life is, how life should be, and the synapse of human nature that the creative sparks fly across. 99 Problems is that spark; nuanced, unpretentious, and without fear."
Much appreciation to Vinnie the Vole and TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Mark S. Brand for the quite fine words, not to mention the Judy Blume comparison, in their review of You Can Make Him Like You. Many drinks soon. And big thanks.
