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Don't Get Too Comfortable

The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems

The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems

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

By David Rakoff

By David Rakoff

By David Rakoff

By David Rakoff
Read by David Rakoff

By David Rakoff
Read by David Rakoff

Best Seller
Paperback $16.00

Sep 12, 2006 | ISBN 9780767916035

Ebook $6.99

Sep 20, 2005 | ISBN 9780385516839

Audiobook Download $8.48

Sep 20, 2005 | 363 Minutes

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    Don't Get Too Comfortable by David Rakoff
    Paperback $16.00
    Sep 12, 2006 | ISBN 9780767916035

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    • Paperback $16.00

      Sep 12, 2006 | ISBN 9780767916035

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      Sep 20, 2005 | ISBN 9780385516839

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    About Don’t Get Too Comfortable

    A bitingly funny grand tour of our culture of excess from an award-winning humorist.

    Whether David Rakoff is contrasting the elegance of one of the last flights of the supersonic Concorde with the good-times-and-chicken-wings populism of Hooters Air; working as a cabana boy at a South Beach hotel; or traveling to a private island off the coast of Belize to watch a soft-core video shoot—where he is provided with his very own personal manservant—rarely have greed, vanity, selfishness, and vapidity been so mercilessly skewered. Somewhere along the line, our healthy self-regard has exploded into obliterating narcissism; our manic getting and spending have now become celebrated as moral virtues. Simultaneously a Wildean satire and a plea for a little human decency, Don’t Get Too Comfortable shows that far from being bobos in paradise, we’re in a special circle of gilded-age hell.

    About Don’t Get Too Comfortable

    A bitingly funny grand tour of our culture of excess from an award-winning humorist.

    Whether David Rakoff is contrasting the elegance of one of the last flights of the supersonic Concorde with the good-times-and-chicken-wings populism of Hooters Air; working as a cabana boy at a South Beach hotel; or traveling to a private island off the coast of Belize to watch a soft-core video shoot—where he is provided with his very own personal manservant—rarely have greed, vanity, selfishness, and vapidity been so mercilessly skewered. Somewhere along the line, our healthy self-regard has exploded into obliterating narcissism; our manic getting and spending have now become celebrated as moral virtues. Simultaneously a Wildean satire and a plea for a little human decency, Don’t Get Too Comfortable shows that far from being bobos in paradise, we’re in a special circle of gilded-age hell.


    This edition includes an excerpt from David Rakoff’s Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish.

    About Don’t Get Too Comfortable

    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 North 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.

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Listen to a sample from Don’t Get Too Comfortable

    Also by David Rakoff

    The Uncollected David Rakoff
    Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish
    Half Empty
    Fraud
    See all books by David Rakoff

    Also by David Rakoff

    The Uncollected David Rakoff
    Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish
    Half Empty
    Fraud
    See all books by David Rakoff

    Also by David Rakoff

    The Uncollected David Rakoff
    Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish
    Half Empty
    Fraud
    See all books by David Rakoff

    About David Rakoff

    David Rakoff is the author of four New York Times bestsellers: the essay collections Fraud, Don’t Get Too Comfortable, and Half Empty, and the novel in verse Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish. A two-time recipient of the Lambda Literary Award and winner of the Thurber Prize for American… More about David Rakoff

    About David Rakoff

    David Rakoff is the author of four New York Times bestsellers: the essay collections Fraud, Don’t Get Too Comfortable, and Half Empty, and the novel in verse Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish. A two-time recipient of the Lambda Literary Award and winner of the Thurber Prize for American… More about David Rakoff

    About David Rakoff

    David Rakoff is the author of four New York Times bestsellers: the essay collections Fraud, Don’t Get Too Comfortable, and Half Empty, and the novel in verse Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish. A two-time recipient of the Lambda Literary Award and winner of the Thurber Prize for American… More about David Rakoff

    Product Details

    Category: Humor | Biography & Memoir | Literary Collections

    Paperback | $16.00
    Published by Anchor
    Sep 12, 2006 | 240 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780767916035

    Category: Humor | Biography & Memoir | Literary Collections

    Ebook | $6.99
    Published by Anchor
    Sep 20, 2005 | 224 Pages | ISBN 9780385516839

    Category: Humor | Biography & Memoir | Literary Collections | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $8.48
    Published by Random House Audio
    Sep 20, 2005 | 363 Minutes | ISBN 9780739323366
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    Praise

    “If I were to die suddenly while the reading of this book were in my recent memory, I would probably beg to be reincarnated as a bird so that I could eat seed out of Rakoff’s hand. I can’t write a more loving review than that.” —Popmatters

    “A cannily satirical tour guide.” —The New York Times Book Review

    “The pleasures of reading what results when an exceedingly sharp pen encounters an exceedingly inviting target are not to be denied, and Rakoff offers many such delights in these pages.” —Washington Post

    “The belly laughs start on page 7 and occur regularly throughout Rakoff’s frequently impertinent, occasionally irascible, yet always inimitable take on contemporary American society.” —Booklist

    “Impuslively readable . . . completely and utterly original.” —Kirkus Reviews

    “Rakoff’s strength is the turn of phrase that deftly and wittily dissects its subject at a stroke.” —Chicago Tribune

    Awards

    Lambda Literary Award WINNER 2005

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