"I like...the canned cranberry sauce lump that looks like a robot's kidney."

The line above is taken from Gay's description of Thanksgiving dinner at his parents' house. I think that's a clever, unexpected, good-natured and very colorful observation; if you find that at all amusing you'll probably like this book.

Forget about the sportswriter angle. I'm generally not that impressed with humorous sports columnists. But, apart from a funny column about kids' zen baseball and another column about family Thanksgiving touch football this book doesn't really address sports, (except for a number of shots at the Jets, which are of course required for a New York based sportswriter). This book is bigger, kinder, warmer and wiser than that.

It isn't one of those Andy from Mayberry cornball wit/wisdom/humor books. It also isn't a snarky/edgy put down sort of humor book, or the work of a smug insult comic. It doesn't go anywhere near political humor. Rather, what you get is regular guy everyday advice, tailored for thirty-somethings who haven't gotten it yet. Gay writes for the Wall Street Journal, but he's also written for the Village Voice and Rolling Stone, (the later years), so he's been around and he's looked at the New York scene from a lot of different perspectives. He doesn't seem to have any grudges, and he isn't selling any particular point of view. This is more "human comedy" sort of stuff. It isn't as dry and deadpan as Calvin Trillin, (with that "New Yorker" touch), and it isn't quite as formulaic as Dave Barry, but that is the sort of style and tradition we're talking about here. From beginning to end you will find this author, and his concerns, likeable and relateable.

The book is set up in an unusual but effective way. Each chapter starts with a piece that's about a column in length. Then there are anywhere from a few to a few dozen bullet items that follow the piece like footnotes and elaborate on some of the thoughts from the column. You'd think this would be disjointed and off-putting, but it really works. It's sort of like a monologue sets up the theme and then that's followed by a whole bunch of snappy, well-timed and paced riffs and variations. I liked the approach; it was a refreshing change from just having a bunch of columns strung together.

The book was written the year Gay's father died and there are some touching scenes that address that event. Moreover, that seems to tilt the whole book to a special emphasis on family - kids, parents, spouse, siblings. That's not a bad theme and not a bad way to connect all of the essays. That said, there are plenty of sweet one-liners here.

So, it's calm, fun, amusing and remarkably well crafted and presented. A nice find. (Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)