Fraud

Your average New Yorker may find this to be one of the funniest books ever written, seriously. Unfortunately no-one bothered to translate this book for the rest of the country. In this book, it is typical that David spends two paragraphs building up a scene, or a moment within the scene, to end it with a reference to some New Yorker, past or present, as some sort of punchline. Rakoff never bothers to explain, even for an instant, who in the hell these people are. For example, when someone is asked to move a tent pole a few inches because it was in the way of a lane that had been planned, Rakoff starts in like a professional comedian-- finding the humor in the monotonous. He starts in dryly expanding the idea of planning a path where people will walk into someone's vision of a vast tent city and ends it by comparing the person who planned the lane with Robert Moses. Quite funny if you know that Robert Moses was NY City's most powerful City Planner, and some of his history. Moses is probably the most mainstream of Rakoff's name-dropping punchlines. Others, I assume, revolve around NY's art, lit., and political scenes. Most of this could have been solved by simply adding titles to the names, like saying "former NY City City Planner Robert Moses" rather than just "Robert Moses."If you're a New Yorker, or well versed in New York culture, this book was literally written for you. For the rest of us, the book contains a lot of non-namedropping moments of sheer brilliance, but you have to be willing to drudge through all those worthless names to see it.

I'm happy with the product and the swift delivery.

I always enjoyed Rakoff on NPR, but took my time getting to his writing. That was a mistake, as he is an essayist with a distinctive style and voice. I have bought three collections now, and am only disappointed there cannot be more. An interesting, thoughtful voice stilled too early, he stands with David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell. I would urge everyone to try at least one of his collections.

I love books of essays. They're the fast food of reading. Wolf down one essay, and resume your quotidian toiling. In this realm, Rakoff's FRAUD is not freeze dried noodles in a broth of water and MSG, but it's not sirloin cheeseburger either. It's something in between. To be sure, I was not afflicted by a case of "I can't put the book down".This book is not an easy read by any standard. In terms of bombast and sesquipedalian delivery, Rakoff resides atop the food chain. But it's precisely the creative prose that kept me perusing these marginally compelling stories. It's somewhat unfortunate because it's should be about the tales, not the delivery. You might not need a dictionary to follow Rakoff along this labyrinth of expressive techniques, but you will require some reading double-takes to keep up. I recommend the book for adequate entertainment value and unique phraseology.

This is David Rakoff and it is brilliant. There is nothing more that need be said. But I will add one thing: I got two of his books from the library and before I'd finished the second, I got on Amazon and bought every book he wrote, a painfully short list. Unlike all the books I own because I think I will reread them but never do, these I reread all the time, just take one from the shelf, open at random, and read. Glorious.

My rating is in the stars, but since everyone else has basically said it all well enough already, I've compiled the most important and most interesting excerpts from the writings of previous reviewers."His intelligence is clearly there, but he likes to hide it in a maze of needlessly complicated prose and obscure references that only a gay Canadian Jew would understand." - cn frost" Rakoff is not afraid to make fun of himself" - Stuart Howard"I think many readers may begin to read this" - vladekrussell"milquetoast" - atermr"Fraud is self-deprecating irreverence that hits the mark." - Peter Jackman"if you want really to enjoy him, skim off the last paragraph of each entry when he shifts tones to dewy-eyed wonder to share with you The Lesson He's Learned" - jade nb"This American Life" - Brian Marino"I hate to be like everyone else and use David Sedaris as a benchmark" - Kathy cimino"we shouldn't want him to be Sedaris" - R. Walker"Nothing in Fraud comes close to Sedaris" - Michelle C. Benko"I am now actually toting around a little list of words I call my Rakoff Words, trying to use them in sentences - which is not easy." - Kim Bingham"Sedaris" - A reader"effete lexicon" - Joshua a. reed"Sedaris" - Walter Heape"A fun collection." - blissengine"Sedaris" - S. Karen C."Rakoff's humor is clearly not for everyone." - walter e. hall"I cracked a smile every now and then" - biomusician"I don't care if he's not David Sedaris" - j3fer"Sedaris" - Dr. Christopher Coleman"chicken coop" - Larry Mark"Other reviewers have invariably used David Sedaris as the benchmark to measure David Rakoff against." - Lee Kessler"bargin" - Ellen Galen"Not every day that you come across a book..." - Christa"Sedaris" - Michael Paul Maupin, Brett Brenner, Jeremy Youde, clevermix, sally barry, Valerie frankel and Marie Potter

It's David Rakoff and he rocks. Or he did. The world is a sadder place without him in it. Essential reading if you feel the desire to have a broad smile break out across your face.Witty, word-wise, dry, sarcastic... David Rakoff fell into the same category as David Sedaris. I wish he'd had the time to pen more essay collections like this. Gone far too soon, a great talent.

I wanted something fun and engaging for summer reading and this fits the bill - intelligent, witty and fun to read

Given as a gift

Great book. Perfect for picking up and reading in short bursts

Mundane

Anything written by David Rakoff is witty and wickedly funny and this collection is no exception.