{"id":2502,"date":"2016-06-26T19:19:09","date_gmt":"2016-06-26T19:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sometimesraw.com--precise\/?p=2502"},"modified":"2016-06-26T19:19:09","modified_gmt":"2016-06-26T19:19:09","slug":"the-book-review-half-empty-by-david-rakoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sometimesraw.com\/?p=2502","title":{"rendered":"The Book Review: Half Empty by David Rakoff."},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cWe are disclosing animals, wired for unburdening. It\u2019s what we do as a species. When I am being told, I listen, mindful of the honor, remembering all the while that the shore would be mistaken to believe that the waves lap up against him because he is so beautiful.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Hello and Happy Sunday!\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I re-read David Rakoff\u2019s Half Empty<\/em> a while ago and I am a huge fan. My glass is usually half full but it is interesting to read about people who prefer their glass half empty and like\u00a0to be on the negative side of the pond most of the time. I am a huge David Sedaris fan and David Rakoff is right up his alley. Rakoff\u2019s theory is that \u201c\u2026all research is Me-search\u201d and I like to reflect on how annoying and at the same time right-on he can be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Great entertainment in ten essays make you find out about the power of negative thinking with a pretty sweet pace of challenging sentences or as Rakoff puts it \u201cmy ideas move like cold honey\u201d. Throughout the book, Rakoff refers to being Jewish, Canadian, gay and \u201cfreakishly small\u201d and I was pleasantly surprised by the content. With this series of autobiographical essays that are mostly based on disappointment, failure and pessimism, Rakoff\u2019s holds up a mirror to society, all with this amazingly dry humor that I love. Sometimes his writing style is pretty dense and some people might be put off. There are just many tangents he goes off on and I also had to re-read certain passages but I love challenges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be peaks of great joy from which to crow and vales of tears out of which to climb. When and why they will happen, no one can say, but they will happen. To all of us. We will all go back and forth from one to the other countless times during a lifetime. This is not some call to bipartisanship between inimical sides. The Happy and the Sad are the same population.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

While Rakoff wrote Half Empty<\/em>, he was diagnosed with a malignant tumor and began chemotherapy. Unfortunately he passed away in August, 2012. In his\u00a0essay \u201cAnother Shoe<\/em>\u201d is a little twist of his usual humorous take on negativity. He describes how he felt when his cancer came back and that he is struggling through it with hope and this strong belief that it does not really matter what goes on with your life, you must hang on and keep moving forward. The book is just an amazing mix of laugh-out-loud moments and funny images that he described in such a way that some would stay with me for days.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy room is cheerfully located between the sixth-floor elevators. The springs of my bed wheeze. The elevator dings. The ice machine right outside my door rumbles forth its icy bounty, a steady tattoo that beats \u201cStay up! Stay up!\u201d I am in a canvas that Edward Hopper never felt bummed out enough to paint.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Sarcastic, funny, thought-provoking, sometimes sad, sometimes very funny, delightful and brilliant. For David Rackoff or David\u00a0Sedaris\u00a0fans a must-read! Enjoy!\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Order the book here<\/a><\/span><\/strong>. Also, watch this interesting video below if you would like. Have a great week.<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n