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Absinthe & Flamethrowers: Projects And Ruminations On The Art Of Living Dangerously (2009)

by William Gurstelle(Favorite Author)

3.45 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1556528221 (ISBN13: 9781556528224)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Chicago Review Press

review 1: There is a small but growing sub-genre of books into which this one fits quite neatly. It is, to the best of my knowledge, purely an American male phenomenon, but if you've found something else, please let me know.It's the genre I describe as "Mid-Life Crisis Obsession Non-Fiction." A man, always middle class, white, and well-educated, but bored and dulled by his safe corporate life, decides to embrace something wild and daring and dangerous. Then he writes about how he did it, often about how you can do it, too. There is almost always some sort of an attempt at making it a spiritual journey, Prime examples are "Heat", "No Impact Man" (okay, a blog/movie not a book...), and "Emergency." One might argue that "Fight Club" qualifies, though I've never actually slogged through... more that book. And now, "Absinthe and Flamethrowers."I was torn about my rating. Part of the book is fantastic -- a useful and handy guide on how to make gunpowder and solid rocket fuel. There are instructions, too, for an actual flame thrower. There is a listing of places to buy hard-to-find items (which I plan to use for my sausage making, if nothing else). Clear, well-written, laced with just enough humour. A good read for those of us who love a Mythbusters marathon. And then there's the rest of the book.He spends a long and dull chapter in the front of the book talking about how risk taking defines our humanity, our selves, our lives! How you are a better person if you take risks! How modern life stifles our risk taking! How he broke out from his dull job at the phone company! Blah, blah, blah. I skimmed the first bit of that chapter and skipped the rest, thinking that this guy should just run naked into the woods and bang on a drum. And, for someone who believes risk taking is so vital, he spends a LOT of his ink describing common-sense safety precautions for all of his "artfully dangerous projects." It's likely that he had to do that because of lawyers, but it's still a steady undercurrent of caution that undermines his central thesis of RISK=LIVING!And the rest of the book -- the bits that aren't gunpowder or smoke bombs or whatnot -- strikes a sort of sour note with me. He enumerates a list of "artfully dangerous activities" that you may or may not want to indulge in. I'm all for living "on the edge," but his idea of what a dangerous man might do is a bit ... adolescent. Imagine what a suburban 14-year-old geek boy might think that James Bond does and you've got a good idea of his list: eating fugu, learning to crack a whip, smoking a European cigarette, drinking absinthe (which, he's at pains to explain, isn't nearly as dangerous as you think it is!), and driving fast. Even eating hot chili peppers makes his list, which becomes fairly pedestrian once it's out of the realm of explosives.The most interesting thing that doesn't involve explosives is his very glancing section of bartitsu, the martial art practiced by Sherlock Holmes. It's not useful, but he has endnotes that point the interested Holmes fan towards more information.And I have got to applaud his citations, lists, and excellent references. Ironically, his solid research is the best part of the book. What's more, it's useful for those of us who want the learn to make gunpowder, but don't see doing so as a life-affirming way to reassert our manhood.
review 2: There were several things I liked about this book, but so many more that I didn't.At the 50 page mark we still hadn't gotten into the descriptions of how to do dangerous things.The author spends those 50 pages talking about the philosophy of why people do dangerous things, which wouldn't have been too bad if he hadn't come off as slightly patronizing.I skimmed the rest of the book, which includes info on how to build a flamethrower, how to eat pufferfish, how to build smoke bombs, etc.My favorite line: "Wear a hat when practicing with a bullwhip."Okay.Overall, I felt Gurstelle's writing was uneven. He spouts philosophy, personality tests, and theory in the first half, using big words and somewhat talking down to his audience, but in the latter half of the book he takes the low road, really talking down to the audience (such as gently explaining what eBay is). My opinion: if you don't know what eBay is, you probably shouldn't be purchasing chemicals online and drinking wormwood in your spare time.I thought this could have been an adventurous, moderately anarchistic read, but it was just disappointing. less

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