This was my first encounter with Denis Leary and I can certainly see why he would rub some people the wrong way. He's loud, spastic and opinionated but pretty freakin' hilarious most of the time. He skewers modern society in all our over-priviledged glory and many of his observations are embarassingly true. Leary does devote a chunk of time to talking about his Catholic Irish upbringing which was less amusing than his insights on society in general.

But for the majority of the book Leary takes potshots at everything from Viagra to cancer-causing popcorn to child rearing to celebrity sex tapes, and does it in fine form. If you take him seriously, he comes off as a complete ass, but as Leary himself states in the introduction- the book is meant to be comedy, it's not meant to be taken seriously, and from a totally non-serious viewpoint Why We Suck is very funny.

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This book was just about what I expected from Denis Leary. It is in his typical ranting style, and he pokes fun at just about everything. If you don't like his stand-up routines (No Cure For Cancer for instance), you likely will not like this book either.

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I love Denis Leary and pretty much agree with his take on life and the ridiculousness surrounding us daily.
The first few chapters I found myself laughing out loud which is pretty rare for me, but by the middle chapters the language really started to wear thin on me and it actually started to get a little boring so I quit.
I figure I won't pick it up again so it's off to the next person in line.

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If you have a sense of humor and do not care about political correctness, this is the book for you! Very funny and thought provoking.

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I really like Denis Leary - he's a great comic and "Rescue Me" is a great show.

But I got a little bored and fed up with this book. Yeah, OK - Leary's a "guy's guy" - and he's gotta tell you that over and over. Sweeping generalizations about both men and women run rampant through this book. In the foreword, he warns the reader it's just for the joke. But I have to think he really thinks this way more times than not. In his book he says when drunk people say nasty things we tend to give them some slack because they were drunk - but really they're just saying things they really mean without the filter of sobriety. So I wonder if Leary's early warning of "don't take me too seriously" can be construed the same way.

He has a chapter about how he hates cats. Part of what he says is true - dogs are much more useful in helping humans. But his only relationship to a cat is his own barn cat. That's too bad - if he took the time to get to know a domesticated housecat he might understand more of their complexity vs. seeing a slightly feral barn cat be so aloof.

I gave up on the women vs. men chapters when he didn't even have the "BFF" term correct. C'mon!

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I'm a huge fan of his and agreed with 98% of what he had to say in this book. It's really kind of a "rant" more than anything else. You can hear his voice as though he's speaking directly to you - and there are times when he just goes on and on because he's so excited and there are no punctuation indicators and no pauses and he keeps going and going and you have to almost catch your breath while reading . . . whew!! He's pretty much dead on, though, with his views on why/how the rest of the world views Americans the way they do. He does veer off in a few chapters on differences between men and women in general, but it's very funny stuff. I found that it was a book that I picked up and put down - had to do it in chapters, really; not a book you plow through in a day or two (at least not for me.) Look forward to chapters such as "Autism Shmautism", "Matt Dillon is a Giant Fag" and "We'd Hate You Even If You Weren't Black."

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He's going to tick off just about anyone who reads this at some point because he is - much like Don Rickles - an equal opportunity curmudgeon. I enjoyed the book and agreed with him on 90% of what he wrote.
A little to harsh on overweight women and cats though. Gee, did I just give myself away. LOL.

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With all the cussing, with the angry tone, with the irreverant commentary, I really didn't WANT to like this book. But I did. His in-your-face opinions on raising kids made me laugh out loud. I loved his rants in favor of Oprah. And I really like his devotion to his family. I enjoy Rescue Me and thought I'd pick this up and see what I thought. I thought it was pretty funny, pretty true and common-sensical. I don't agree with every opinion he shares, but surprising more than what I disagreed with!

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Started out as a funny take on our celebrity obsessed culture but turned into a "when I was a boy" rant. I am in my mid thirties and felt that he really began to show his age that comes across as an old man bitching about the way things used to be.

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HILARIOUS!!! Not for the faint of heart or the easily offended. Very much like "Rescue Me". Loved it.

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This was a gift, so I tried to get through it. Ultimately it is a book about how smart Denis Leary thinks he is and how stupid he thinks everyone else is. He grew up in a great hardworking family and everyone else grew up as losers. Not my kind of humor.

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This is Denis Leary's hard-hitting, no mercy, irreverent kind of humour

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very very funny!!!

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