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The Big Rewind: A Memoir Brought To You By Pop Culture (2009)

by Nathan Rabin(Favorite Author)

3.33 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1416556206 (ISBN13: 9781416556206)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Scribner Book Company

review 1: I read this book at the same time I was reading a book by Rob Sheffield, another pop culture critic. It was an interesting contrast. I think if I saw Sheffield on the street, I'd invite him for coffee. He seems adorable. If I saw Nathan Rabin, I think I'd cross the street. He has an air of the seedy and strange about him. True, he has been through a lot, and lived through a lot of life, but I don't think he's someone I'd want to hang with. I liked the earlier part of the book much better, with the stories of the group home and the crazy world of Madison. The Movie Club and auditioning for Roger Ebert's show were very dull to me.
review 2: I love 90% of Rabin's writing on the Onion A.V. Club. He's hilarious and his pop-culture sensibilities are similar to ... moremy own. I also love memoirs and it has been hinted in his columns that Mr. Rabin has lead an interesting life, so I was totally stoked to read this book.Unfortunately, this memoir, which is the definition of "try-hard", fails on multiple levels and it was hard to not let some of the disappointment affect my feelings on Rabin as a writer. He is constantly trying to be funny to the point where it's distracting and tedious. He writes about himself with so much self-conscious self-loathing that it's painful. And I got crazy second-hand-embarrassment when he started writing about his current girlfriend. I mean it's great that Rabin found someone nice but his emotional maturity is such that he writes about her as if he was a 20 year-old in his first serious relationship.The only parts of the book that are really good are the parts that focus primarily on pop-culture and celebrities. Unfortunately he awkwardly tried to break his life up into these chapters that related to some aspect of pop-culture and that conceit doesn't really work. Basic takeaway - Rabin should stick to writing about pop-culture, and let his personality and life shine through that writing - not the other way around. Sorry, dude. less

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