Dating Your Mom

by Ian Frazier

Book Overview

From the opening essay, "The Bloomsbury Group Live at the Apollo (Liner Notes from the New Best-Selling Album)" to the title piece that discusses ways in which you might begin a romance with your mother ("In today's fast-moving, transient, rootless society, where people meet and make love and part without ever really touching, the relationship every guy already has with his own mother is too valuable to ignore...") to a parody that features Samuel...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312421524
• ISBN13: 9780312421526
• Release Date: March 2003
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

My favorite humorist of all time

Frazier is a brilliant stylist and the ideas behind his pieces are equally brilliant. I was thinking this morning that perhaps "Dating Your Mom" (the title piece itself) is making a point about the banality of evil in self-help books--that is, saying that self-help books encourage you to look out for number one without noticing what the cost may be, as epitomized by the earnest advice that one should date one's mom, perhaps the greatest taboo in Western culture. Or maybe not. But the essays made me SCREAM with laughter and I used to re-read them every six months, dreaming that I might ever find something so funny again. "You've really kept your figure Mom, and don't think I haven't noticed." Perfection.

Howlingly funny

There is not a dud in here. I've loaned and given this book to so many people and every single one has come back to me raving about how hilarious it was. I consider this book to be right in the mainstream of the magnificent New Yorker humor tradition, and I'd recommend it to almost anyone.

A Small Work of Genius

Often brilliant, exceptionally funny, pieces.

Joyously Anarchic Satire

Ian Frazier's "Dating Your Mom," despite its rather disturbing title, is an unparalleled collection of the author's early writings, most or all of which appeared in "The New Yorker." The book reels from essays reviewing the Bloomsbury Group's appearance at the Apollo Theatre to the delightful speculation on what kind of an airline pilot Samuel Beckett would have been. Although Frazier stumbles occasionally--one or two of the essays are rather banal--the overall effect is superb.

It did it for me

Praise Jesus. I nevber knew that such a book would ever be available. Mr. Frazier really know about the Christlike spirit that eminates through the true respect and love of the parent figure. God Bless you brother Frazier