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Book Review of Me Talk Pretty One Day

Me Talk Pretty One Day
Minehava avatar reviewed on + 829 more book reviews


Funny at times, fast read. Each chapter is a different essay, so it is easy to pick up and put down. It would make a good vacation book.

He writes about his childhood, his quirky family, pets, lame jobs, his stupidity, his time in France and learning to speak french. The stories that he tells come from different times in his life, so it has a bit disorganized timeline.

There were some funny sections, but overall this was below average. The author is a somewhat dysfunctional, spoiled kid (now adult) that failed to achieve any degree of success, his father did. His father was a Greek immigrant who got himself a degree in engineering & became an IBM specialist. Sadly he was his children's target for scorn and belittling. What could have been funny stories turn into hurtful attacks on his lack of "fun factor"
Eventually the patents filled the empty nest (after 6 kids) with pet (dog) which they adored. This dog loved them back unconditionally an became more vital to them then their absent, dysfunctional kids. Which made said Kids resentful. Sadly this is the tragic story of many American families.

Though the stories have some entertaining quality, the writing lacks finesse and is somewhat dry. It is âI'm not sure I want to keep reading it, but it may have interesting paragraph later on, like 15 pages a goâ sort of book. More is the pity since it had the potential to be memorable masterpiece.