Spoiled Brats (including the story that inspired the major motion picture An American Pickle starring Seth Rogen): Stories

Funny, eccentric and original takes of familar story lines. Stories of anthromorphic animals, genies and wishes, a classic immigrant story, angel of death, classic Freudian conflicts, and conspiracies somehow told in original, unpredictable , ironic, funny, oddly twisted ways. Thought provoking and oddly touching (at times). Read this book—but first feed your gerbils!

The chapters are short stories a la New Yorker, in fact, some may have even appeared there. And there's a longer novella in the middle of the book that really sends up the Brooklyn like hipsters in your town - but does it right there in Brooklyn w/ kind of a Rip van Winkle twist. A couple of ten year old boys get their own chapters & do twisted things to hamsters & an elf on the shelf. But they are quite funny in the telling & mostly end well despite some nasty details. The spoiled brats of the title, btw, are the millennials amongst us, either as kids or all grown up & dealing w/ Boomers & Gen Xers. There isn't a lot of condescension from the older folks despite the spoiled designation. The twenty somethings pretty much get to define themselves rather matter of factly w/ the kind of humor that all the present living & reading generations will enjoy. Most likely, even you.

This book is funny and entertaining. Some people may find it a bit weird.

I started Spoiled Brats while stuck on the F train beneath the East River. What should have been the "commute from Hell" -- standing for 45 minutes in a stalled train underground -- turned into a continuous laugh fest as I poured through the first 3 stories of this hilarious book, having way too much fun. The bad news? I finished the book much too quickly. It felt SO GOOD to laugh, I could not put it down. The good news? Simon Rich has written lots of other books! A smart, subversive, supremely entertaining writer, this is a book not to be missed. A surprise at every turn. Highly recommended!!

I had bought this book eons ago and somehow never got around to reading it--now that I have, I wish I'd done so a lot earlier! IMHO the first story alone is worth the price . . . . It's a collection of short stories, and like all such collections, some will appeal to one reader but not perhaps to another; the nature of the beast. And, of course, short stories are notoriously difficult to write and write well. Seems the author here has no trouble doing this--more power to him. Rich is able to create for each character/narrator a unique "voice" that the reader can hear in her head. This adds a lot to the humor of the tales. A few stories feature a character named "Simon" (different for each tale). Clearly intended to provide a glimpse into Simon Rich's rich internal humor....very clever. You will like this book if you'd really like something amusing to read (a couple of times I cracked up), enjoy short stories, good characterization and storylines, and are sick and tired of the depressing state of affairs on the news. I am glad to see that Rich has other books on Amazon. I'm going to purchase another NOW.

I occasionally and causally write humor, but I can't add anything to this work by this review that wouldn't sound like a five-year old trying to play Bach on a kazoo. Just get it and bask in page after page of consistent creative brilliant-yet-low-brow humor. If there was anything funny on SNL, I'm going to have to assume he wrote it. The SNL Girls parody and the pickle factory chapter seem cut from the same cloth. After seeing that sketch, I had to break it to my friend that the eastern European wasn't on the actual show, just the whiny brats. Anyway, if you have ever wanted to be there when some annoying special snowflake or trust fund baby collides with reality, here is your chance to bathe in scheidenfreude streams that are your tears of laughter and joy.

Some of Simon Rich's ideas are really unique. The stories with wacky dialogue, characters and situations will make you laugh. Some of them do not have original concepts behind them and they will disappoint. The book is a real roller coaster ride for the reader in that he's thrown in the half baked ones with the gems. That said, he's a good writer and I'm sure he won't quit with this book.

This book provided comic relief for me at a time when I really needed it (as I sat next to a loved one's hospital bed) and inspired me to speed read two more of Simon's books, and then read them all again. He creates unlikely scenes from unimaginable points of view, and picks and pulls the humor of the 21st century condition out of them. He pokes fun at the entitled, young, and spoiled with characters you identify with yet also cringe at the thought of. There is humor is in the absurdity of the characters, and there is comedy is the way these absurd characters interact with the situations they find themselves in.

Bien

Hilarious, and laugh out loud funny.

Depois de "The Last Girlfriend on Earth", é o meu favorito. Simon Rich mostra também uma evolução como escritor. Vale a leitura!