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

By: David Rakoff

Narrated by: David Rakoff

Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins

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.

©2005 David Rakoff (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

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)

Not so much

I had a hard time getting past the purple prose and the arch reading style.

Possibly the book may be better in print, but there is still the flood of adverbs, adjectives and insipid similes to content with...

"Liberal, gay,"

Disgusting reading voice, trite, worn out jokes, what else??? Witty and insighful to a lamer maybe? Get a real job, back in Canada preferably.

The is a terrible book

I guess if I were to boil down my review it would read: DO NOT BUY THIS TRASH. So, having said that...why? Well essentially, as other reviewers have said, this book really is a diatribe on people the other seems
1. Never to have actally met
2. Seems to hate

Sound good to you? Didn't think so....

Not what I was expecting:

I grow weary of Rakoff's tireless self-analysis and intent to experience the costliest of lifestyles in as much misery as possible. His work on This American Life was entertaining, but I will not be buying another of his books.

Listen to the entire audio sample.

This book should be subtitled, 'Yes I am a homosexual, and Yes I do hate George Bush". The book is humorous but with a sharp biting edge that you will find irritating unless you also hate George Bush. If you are at the far left edge of the American political spectrum or you hate America for any other reason, you will love this book.

Overly flowery drivel drove me nuts

I was amused by some parts: the satires of bureaucracy and politics. But anyone can do that! Might be an enjoyable read, but not an enjoyable listen. If I want to listen to someone point out the ridiculousness that pervades our culture, I'll take it from someone like George Carlin. Maybe if George Carlin had read this book, I might have enjoyed it, but the tone of David Rakoff's voice annoyed me to no end. It has a sarcastic, whiny, tone. In fact, he sounds just like Mr. Hat from South Park! I think he's the wrong type of guy to be doing this type of comedy. He tries to make his satires eloquently poetic by unneccessarily utilizing grandiose phrases that are out of place, as I have just demonstrated. David Rakoff should stick to reading things like Peter Pan, or Diary of a Fairy Godmother.

yawn/grimace

I couldn't imagine subjecting myself to the entire pathetic sorry excuse for literature. very disappointed and will avoid this author at ALL costs!

Review of "Don't Get Too Comfortable"

This is biased political commentary and I suppose the author has the right to say whatever he wants - but I wanted wit, observation and insight without being beat over the head with his point of view. Very disappointing....I deleted it after about 30 minutes of listening.

Shallow Social Commentary

I bought this because of his hilarious interview with Jon Stewart about the Log Cabin Republicans. It's very disappointing though, mostly shallow self-absorbed comments about fashion shows and fasting. The only political riff is about the Log Cabin Republicans, and he never even mentions that they may have a small problem with self-hatred. Too bad, he is funny, just not interesting or observant or thoughtful about anyone but himself.

Don't waste a credit!

What would have made Don't Get Too Comfortable (Unabridged Selections) better?

It just went nowhere....I would not recommend it to anyone. Waste of time.

Has Don't Get Too Comfortable (Unabridged Selections) turned you off from other books in this genre?

It didn't have a story line

How could the performance have been better?

If he didn't use so many weird analogies that I couldn't relate to.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No

Any additional comments?

no