Books Aloud: Book reviews for the Illiterate
Issue 209 / May 2006 More from this Issue
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Shock Value: A Tasteful Book About Bad Taste
John Waters
Thunder's Mouth Press
Street: 03.2005
Drug use, welfare fraud, cross-dressing and making movies John Waters' life story is as captivating and bizarre as the films that he makes. The legendary "Prince of Puke's" autobiography includes detailed accounts about the making of Pink Flamingos, Desperate Living and Female Trouble. It includes everything from the people he watched to develop his ideas to the way that the sets were built. John Waters is as good a writer as he is a filmmaker; his memoirs are never boring to read, whether he is writing about LSD trips being like reruns, how to cook a rat, thawing out a frozen dead dog or shooting a scene. He also focuses on informing readers about the lives of the stars of his flicks, such as Divine, Edith Massey and David Lochary. His story is never boring, but it may be a bit appalling at times. This is bad taste presented at its finest. Jeanette Moses
Drawing by Lance Saunders The Snakepit Book
Ben Snakepit
Gorsky Press
Street: 03.15
Ben Snakepit's day-by-day comic book diary makes you realize just how monotonous life is. We follow Ben through three years of endless drinking, weed smoking, shows, lame and sweet parties and girls he is in love with treating him like total shit. It makes you wonder what the fuck we are here for, not to mention leaving you feeling a bit like a creep standing outside his window watching his every move. You cheer for him when things go well and sympathize when he's wading through the shit of life. I couldn't put The Snakepit Book down and was happy to know that someone else out there goes through all the same shit that I do. In the end, the beautiful moments of Ben's life manage to shine through the monotony of living, making the pop-punk kid inside everyone mutter "aww." Jeanette Moses
Wrecking Crew: The Really Bad News Griffith Park Pirates
John Albert
Scribner
Street: 08.2005
When I was 11 years old, I thought someday I would be playing center field for the Dodgers. By the time I was 15 I had discovered music, theatre and girls; baseball stopped being important. John Albert's story in that sense isn't too far removed from mine; just add a copious amount of sex and drugs, a best friend who changed his name to Rozz Williams, a stint in Bad Religion, rehab and we're practically equal. Hell, he's even a struggling screenwriter trying to con his way into fortune. Wrecking Crew is about waking up to a life where your better days were spent with the warmth of a needle in your arm. Dreams are long since impractical and life's only meaning is a matter of survival and not purpose, until you halfheartedly agree to join a baseball team of social misfits and almost-famous rock-star outcasts. It is outrageous, gratuitous, expletive ridden, drug laced, sexually devious, positively twisted and completely true. It also happens to be one of the best books I've read in years. It's not really about baseball, although the game does provide the connection between the many characters that inhabit the story lines no, this is more about struggle, failure and the line between giving in to defeat and surviving it. It's sobering and yet hopeful in its frank exploration of Hollywood's alt-culture without Hollywood getting in the way. Ryan Michael Painter
John Waters
Thunder's Mouth Press
Street: 03.2005
Drug use, welfare fraud, cross-dressing and making movies John Waters' life story is as captivating and bizarre as the films that he makes. The legendary "Prince of Puke's" autobiography includes detailed accounts about the making of Pink Flamingos, Desperate Living and Female Trouble. It includes everything from the people he watched to develop his ideas to the way that the sets were built. John Waters is as good a writer as he is a filmmaker; his memoirs are never boring to read, whether he is writing about LSD trips being like reruns, how to cook a rat, thawing out a frozen dead dog or shooting a scene. He also focuses on informing readers about the lives of the stars of his flicks, such as Divine, Edith Massey and David Lochary. His story is never boring, but it may be a bit appalling at times. This is bad taste presented at its finest. Jeanette Moses
Drawing by Lance Saunders The Snakepit Book
Ben Snakepit
Gorsky Press
Street: 03.15
Ben Snakepit's day-by-day comic book diary makes you realize just how monotonous life is. We follow Ben through three years of endless drinking, weed smoking, shows, lame and sweet parties and girls he is in love with treating him like total shit. It makes you wonder what the fuck we are here for, not to mention leaving you feeling a bit like a creep standing outside his window watching his every move. You cheer for him when things go well and sympathize when he's wading through the shit of life. I couldn't put The Snakepit Book down and was happy to know that someone else out there goes through all the same shit that I do. In the end, the beautiful moments of Ben's life manage to shine through the monotony of living, making the pop-punk kid inside everyone mutter "aww." Jeanette Moses
Wrecking Crew: The Really Bad News Griffith Park Pirates
John Albert
Scribner
Street: 08.2005
When I was 11 years old, I thought someday I would be playing center field for the Dodgers. By the time I was 15 I had discovered music, theatre and girls; baseball stopped being important. John Albert's story in that sense isn't too far removed from mine; just add a copious amount of sex and drugs, a best friend who changed his name to Rozz Williams, a stint in Bad Religion, rehab and we're practically equal. Hell, he's even a struggling screenwriter trying to con his way into fortune. Wrecking Crew is about waking up to a life where your better days were spent with the warmth of a needle in your arm. Dreams are long since impractical and life's only meaning is a matter of survival and not purpose, until you halfheartedly agree to join a baseball team of social misfits and almost-famous rock-star outcasts. It is outrageous, gratuitous, expletive ridden, drug laced, sexually devious, positively twisted and completely true. It also happens to be one of the best books I've read in years. It's not really about baseball, although the game does provide the connection between the many characters that inhabit the story lines no, this is more about struggle, failure and the line between giving in to defeat and surviving it. It's sobering and yet hopeful in its frank exploration of Hollywood's alt-culture without Hollywood getting in the way. Ryan Michael Painter
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