Fraud

A frequent contributor to the New York Times magazine, Outside, Salon, and GQ, and a regular on Public Radio International's This American Life, David Rakoff's debut collection of essays is simultaneously laugh-out-loud funny and take-your-breath-away poignant. David Rakoff is a fish out of water. Whether he finds himself on assignment climbing Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire -- donning a pair of Timberlands for his trek, only to realize with horror that the shoes I wouldn't be caught dead in might actually turn out to be the shoes I am caught dead in. -- sitting quietly impersonating Sigmund Freud in a department store window...for a month, or musing on the unique predicament of being undetectably Canadian in New York City (...what's more spicy than being Canadian, I ask you?), Rakoff has a gift for exposing life's humour and pathos. Fraud takes us places even we didn't know we wanted to go: expeditions as varied as a search for elves in Iceland, a foray into soap opera acting, or contemplating the gin-soaked olive at the bottom of a martini glass. With the sharpest of eyes, David Rakoff explores the odd and ordinary events of life, spotting what is unique, funny and absurd in the world around him. But for all its razor-sharp wit and snarky humor, Fraud is also, ultimately, an object lesson in not taking life, or oneself, too seriously. From the Trade Paperback edition

Review :
"Combining journalistic tenacity, literary smarts, and a talent for gut-busting one-liners, Rakoff reports on his wilted salad days . . . His blend of withering wit and self-effacing humor makes these essays soar." -"Entertainment Weekly ""Rakoff possesses a sociologist's eye for places where today's consoling myths reside." -"New York Times ""David Rakoff's "Fraud" showcases his rapier wit, slashing in all directions with slice-of-life insights and cutting remarks, sometimes nicking himself with self-deprecation in his dexterous duello with the American experience." -"Publishers Weekly" (starred review) " ""Rakoff likes to paint himself as urbane to a fault, an outsider anywhere unpaved. But then, in the woods or on a mountaintop, he reveals himself, despite his searing and hilarious observations, to be a completely unrelenting romantic." -Dave Eggers, author of "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius ""David Rakoff's hilarious, bittersweet stories are epic struggles-between smoky bars and the great outdoors, management and labor, Santa Claus and Sigmund Freud, New York versus everywhere else, and, not least, neighbor-to-the-North against South. Rakoff is such an American original it turns out he's Canadian. "Vive" the brain drain!" -Sarah Vowell, author of "Take the Cannoli" "From the Trade Paperback edition."