Fresh Lies

Reading James Lileks after a long, hard day (or even in the middle of one) is like a refreshing drink of cool water. He's that good, and that good for you. Witty, self-deprecating, erudite, observant, mordantly intelligent and yet painfully aware of what a blessing it is to be alive...this guy is about as close as any modern columnist or humor writer can be to a modern Robert Benchley. I've been following him in columns, book collections, and website for years, and he never disappoints. If you get a chance to get your hands on a copy of "Fresh Lies", go ahead and spent the rent and insulin money to get it. You'll be glad you did, and your pancreas can hold out a little while longer.

He can write. He can dance. And after 2 cans of beers, he can eructate a heart-rending belchadelic rendition of THE WAY WE WERE. I can't believe I'm living in a world where every goddam Salvation Army store contains 937 copies of VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and not one copy of FRESH LIES. As Kenneth Tynan said, it's enough to make a Manichean of me. You have a decision to make, Smedley. You can either buy FRESH LIES---or I can program my Orson Welles android to sit on your face. The choice is yours.

A few deserving authors on the Right have really made their bones in the wake of 9-11.Ê Bernard Lewis went from being well-regarded in the ivory towers to a prominent place on magazine covers as the leading public voice in the West on Islam.Ê Victor Davis Hanson went from being a distinctive but little known military writer to one of the most popular geopolitical columnists in America.Ê Christopher Hitchens was saved from a life of thralldom to the tenets of Marxism as he became a leading, if improbable, defender of Western values.Ê Daniel Pipes became just as much the celebrated scourge of Islam as his dad had been the scourge of the Soviet Union.Ê And, on the comedic front, we all "discovered" James Lileks. If you've ever looked at a blog, particularly a war blog, you'll have seen--and hopefully followed-- innumerable links to Mr. Lileks's Daily Bleat.Ê But he's no recent phenomenon, as this collection of columns from 1994 shows.Ê Mr. Lileks has been toiling away in the vineyards for many years now, or in his case the pages of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.Ê The older satire here is just as funny and just as politically incorrect as his writing over the past few months has been, including rants about NPR, women's hair dye, the metric system, and the Taster's Choice couple. Columnists, especially those who write humor columns, have a tough task, called on not only to be consistent but consistently funny.Ê Mr. Lileks is among the very best. GRADE : A

James Lileks is like a younger Garrison Keeler--and I mean that in a good way. He has the same smart sense of humor and the same midwestern sensibility. Lileks takes on everyday life writing about his fear of his espresso maker, shampoo, rock music, and all sorts of other things in the world around him in a way that is fresh and frequently hilarious. I read this book on the train and people kept staring at me because I was laughing so hard. The chapter entitled "Turn That Racket Down" (about pop music) in particular brought tears to my eyes. Lilieks writes from the point of view of those of us who missed out on being boomers (thank god), but who are to old to be part of Gen X. If it amuses you that the song "Instant Karma" ws used to sell shoes, but you don't understand rap music, you are the right age to enjoy this book

Having never read anything by Mr Lileks before I really did not know what to expect. Now expect to be standing in a bookstore handing over my Visa to purchase everything else he has ever written. I am almost done with "Fresh Lies". I would have finished it days ago but I banned myself from reading it in public. Uncontrollable laughter is a hard thing to explain sometimes.