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Don't Get Too Comfortable (Unabridged Selections)
- The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems
- Narrated by: David Rakoff
- Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins
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Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other, a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage.
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Publisher's Summary
The Indignities of Coach Class, the Torments of Low Thread Count, the Never-Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems.
David Rakoff's collection of autobiographical essays, Fraud, established him as one of our funniest, most insightful writers. In Don't Get Too Comfortable, Rakoff journeys into the land of plenty that is contemporary America. Rarely have greed, vanity, selfishness, and vapidity been so mercilessly and wittily portrayed.
Whether contrasting the elegance of one of the last flights of the supersonic Concorde with the good times and chicken wings of Hooters Air, portraying the rarified universe of Paris fashion shows where an evening dress can cost as much as four years of college, or traveling to a private island off the coast of Belize to watch a soft-core Playboy TV shoot, where he is provided with his very own personal manservant, David Rakoff takes us on a bitingly funny grand tour of our culture of excess, delving into the manic getting and spending that defines the North American way of life.
Somewhere along the line, our healthy self-regard has exploded into obliterating narcissism, and Rakoff is there to map that frontier. He sits through the grotesqueries of “avant garde” vaudeville in Times Square immediately following 9/11. Twenty days without food allows him to experience firsthand the wonders of “detoxification”, and the frozen world of cryonics, whose promise of eternal life is the ultimate status symbol, leaves him very cold indeed (much to our good fortune).
At once a Wildean satire of our ridiculous culture of overconsumption and a plea for a little human decency, Don't Get Too Comfortable is a bitingly funny grand tour of our special circle of gilded-age hell.
Critic Reviews
"Rakoff knows the incantatory power of a story well-told, the art of keeping words aloft like the bubbles in a champagne flute. He possesses the crackling wit of a '30s screwball comedy ingenue, a vocabulary that is a treasure chest of mots justes, impressive but most times not too showy for everyday wear." (Los Angeles Times)
More from the same
What listeners say about Don't Get Too Comfortable (Unabridged Selections)
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Nell Huntworth
- 01-01-10
More wonderful David Rakoff
I love all this author's stories, which I must hear, rather than read, because his voice is so important to the personal quality of his work. I highly recommend all David Rakoff's print and audio books, but if you need to make a choice between this and his audio collection before this one, choose this one; it's a bit more full of the good stuff. He gets better all the time.
10 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Barbara
- 02-05-07
One of the best of the millenium
For anyone who thinks this essay collection is "about George Bush", well, they certainly didn't listen very long. Only a very few of the pieces are particularly political, and in each case they reflect ways in which current American policies have impact the life of the author. That's what a collection of personal essays is suppose to be about!
Rakoff does a flawless job of skewering many ripe subjects, including the fashion industry, Martha Stewart and the people who froze Ted Williams's head. He has a reporter's observational skills and a humorist's compassionate delivery. Having him read his own work is a lovely plus; Mr Rakoff's concise speech and delicate timbre make for an easy, hilarious listen. I also bought two copies in paperback which I loan out carefully ALL the time.
9 people found this helpful
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- Catherine M. Paull
- 01-20-06
Perfect Tone
I purchased this audiobook after seeing Rakoff on the Daily Show - I have rarely been as pleased with a purchase as I have been with Rakoff's work. I purchased the books for my daughter, and have read the essays that do not appear in the audio version, and I am so much happier listening to Rakoff reading. Thankfully, when I read his books myself, I can hear his voice in my head. He strikes the Perfect Tone on each topic. I've read the other suggested books in this genre and although they are enjoyable, they don't come close to Rakoff's work.
6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Leslie
- 12-25-05
Painfully Funny
Rakoff suffers for his craft and we benefit - a behind the scenes look at the day in the life style journalist and his real life shortcomings. Unabashed and unapologetic, painfully aware of his place in the world and always able to see the humor i any situation, this collection of stories is a great listen, well narrated and had me laughing until I cried several times. I loved his first effort "Fraud" and his appearances on "This American Life" but one need not be a lifelong Rakoff fan to be delighted by these tales.
5 people found this helpful
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- Miriam
- 04-12-13
I downloaded this after he died
It broke my heart to listen to this, knowing he had spent such a long time being ill. But on the other hand, its a piece of his wonderful wry legacy and I for that I am grateful.
4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Stanley
- 01-03-07
fun, but OH that voice
Rakoff's observations about the state of American culture are amusing, sometimes rapier sharp, and quite thoughtful.
If only he hadn't read the book himself. His voice is more than a little annoying, a sort of pastel scraping.
Flawed also by being overwritten, a flowery elaboration that is at times almost poetic, at other times just silly.
Worth a listen, in my book, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it enthusiastically.
4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- James
- 10-18-05
Yeah we do have it pretty good, eh?
Even the subtitle for the book is funny, "The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems". Check it out.
8 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Terry
- 10-11-05
Genius
Rakoff once again hits nerves and makes insightful points. Kudos.
6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Don Swinscoe Jr.
- 10-13-05
Not for Anne Coulteresque hate rant readers
Eloquent, wry, and brutally honest, the author takes us on a journey that forces us to discard our half-baked presumptions and petty prejudices, and consider a worldview that beckons us to take a closer, second look at our over-indulgent, mega-consumption, sense of entitlement and ignorance. Writing and narrating with rapid-fire, tongue in cheek, eloquence, the author paints a picture of decadence and misguided ambitions that leaves one both laughing and crying at times. Often aloof and uncomfortable in his environment, he tempers his sparsely sprinkled political diatribes and infrequent ad hominem jabs, with genuine humor and moments of real humanity and insight - always somehow delivering the challenge to see beyond our homophobic, bigoted, and often over-simplified view of society and world affairs, and to finally push away from the dinner table before we need a bucket. For a fresh and entirely different angle, I highly recommend this book.
57 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Dave
- 11-03-05
How many actually listened/read the book?
One reviewer writes "Liberal, gay", as if this is enough to tell one all one needs to know about why the book is bad. Personally, I find liberals a much more decent and pleasant lot than conservatives. I do not care one wit about a person's sexual orientation, as long as they understand the word "no". The author is writing about the decadence of America. And it is true. Our society has gotten to the point where we have to create stress and difficulties for entertainment (Survivor, the Apprentice, the list goes on), and we have a great proportion of our society overweight. We drive gas guzzlers and state that it is our right.
Is it wrong to fault us for this? I think not. If you spend any time in other countries, you quickly realize how spoiled American's are, and how we feel it is our right, not a privilege.
This book is not for all, and neither are Ann Coulter's books. Be forewarned.
17 people found this helpful