My Review of a Soon-To-Be Classic American Travel Novel
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 10:00AM | 7 Comments That’s right, ladies and gents. In addition to writing good, I can read good too. And this break, I read what will soon become one of America’s most classic travel novels.
Drink, Play, F@#k
Don’t act like you don’t know what that third word is. It’s obviously Fahk (the @ sign is always an A and # most definitely is either an e or an h, and since faek isn’t a word that I’ve ever heard of, it’s obviously fahk). Drink, Play, Fahk is decently funny novel written, I assume, as a play off of Elizabeth Gilbert’s popular Eat, Pray, Love.
I found the book, well worth the three hours or so it took me to read it. However, if you are a slow reader, are mildly impatient or have no tolerance for fart jokes, this is not a recommended read. The book is well written. And I find its funniness scale to be somewhere between “Two and a Half Men” and the nightly news. With that in mind, I do actually recommend it as a light read and found some things Andrew wrote about to be quite hilarious. Some of those such moments listed below.
- The phrase “nut-punched” which is one of my new favorite phrases-to-depict-pain in the English language. Ask those I talk with frequently; they will tell you I already overuse it.
- “The great victories in life are never sure things. Anyone can beat up a toddler, especially if he’s napping”
- “Since my wife shoved a nuclear bomb down the pants of our life together.” Another instance where I now like to refer to things getting shoved down the metaphorical pants of intangible parts of my life. I.e. It felt like fire ants got shoved down the pants of that make out session.
- One thing that rocked immensely about this book is the ADD friendly short chapters. We’re talking like 4 pages max. That is nice.
- “Ireland is like Texas – only instead of cowboy hats, its people getting shitfaced.”
- If you did something wrong, “she’d glare at you like you just farted in the potato salad.”
- “Alcohol is essentially liquid poison, but in the good way.”
- And my favorite quotation from the entire book is on page 37 and it is the definition of the Irish word “craic” which happens to be one of my other favorite words. I’m sure I’m infringing on some copy write laws here, but whatever. “Pronounced like ‘crack,’ craic is one of those words that doesn’t have an exact definition but everyone always wants to translate for you. Basically it means ‘fun.’ But not fun like the fun you’d have throwing a Nerf football to your nephew. Craic is the kind of fun you have at two in the morning when you’re so toasted you can barely stand up and someone suggests that you all go outside for a knife-throwing contest and every single one of you thinks this is an awesome idea. That’s the kind of fun they mean when they say craic.”
So all in all, my review is good. I enjoyed the book, but I wouldn’t waste important time on it. I enjoy the sarcasm. I enjoy that he capitalized by riding the success wave of a major novel turned movie. And I would also enjoy seeing this novel turned into a movie, starring Ricky Gervais or Vince Vauhn and with appropriately placed hot men throughout. Just a thought.
Anyone else read it? What are your thoughts?
Reader Comments (7)
Where can I buy this? I need now.
@Alexis - Ooo! Thanks, love. I completely forgot to link to you. You can buy it here or click on the picture of the novel above which now has a link to the buy page on amazon as well.
God you're hilarious. I think I'd read it, fart jokes and all. Is it a true story?
Too funny...
Candice - I'm honestly not sure if it's a true story. I assumed it was, as who wouldn't want to do the research for that kind of novel, but it doesn't really explain anywhere whether it's actually true. I'm 90% sure it's true as in the first chapter the guy introduces himself as Bob Sullivan and footnotes that the name is a pseudonym. BUT... Why give yourself a pseudonym if you're the author and your REAL name is on the front cover? Not sure. So that's why I'm a bit confused. But I like to believe all books are at least mildly true, so let's go with it, aight?
I saw this book in a used bookstore the other day! Never ended up buying it though...
@Michelle - That's where I bought it too! Actually it was in the buy one get one free pile at Barnes and Noble, but same diff. I only bought it because it was on sale, but was glad I did. At $5, it was definitely worth it.