How to Fail: The Self-Hurt Guide Paperback – November 9, 2010

It's very easy to read this and hate it because of the main character. He's smart and charming but mostly a vain jerk, a conceited slacker, a terrible human being. Basically he's an ... oh wait. Yes this is an amazon review. I think you know what comes next.It's easy to hate him, but half way through the third chapter a light blinked on. Oh wait a second. Oh yeah. Of course he's a jerk. It's a "Self Hurt Guide". He's not supposed to be emulated. Goldfarb does a brilliant job of walking that edge. You fully empathize with the character. You even like him in a weird way and yet you can't shake the feeling that he's also a really disgusting crappy person. This tension is pulled throughout the entire book. The narrator, Stu Fish, feels like he's just a narrative stand in for the author. You feel as if the author is really just pontificating on how cool he is. And yet the facts just don't add up. You slowly will realize you aren't *supposed* to like Stu Fish. You're supposed to pity him.Yes this books seems to be getting a lot of reviews about it's language use. This seems really bizarre. It uses very colorful language. It's nothing you wouldn't hear on a typical stand up comedian circuit though. If you've listened to Lewis Black, Chappelle etc, you've heard worse. These aspects of the writing are meant to hit it's point home further.Additionally to all this interesting tension, the author writes a very sharp observation of people in modern life in a way that hasn't permeated in to many novels yet. Cell phones are the bane of Creative Writing professors. They make life too easy to resolve. Even today, when most people have cellphones that stream HD movies, and can download a weeks worth of music, cellphones, computers, the internet don't make their way into novels. Goldfarb hides little nuggets in his work, like the way you find yourself wasting time reading about stuff on wikipedia becoming a wide keeper of useless facts, or the less respectable uses for a cellphone in a public bathroom.I'd strongly recommend this book. The only weak part is the epilogue which doesn't maintain quite the same strength in it's thematic content that the rest does. It's easily digestible chapters, almost like little short stories on their own, but you fill probably feel yourself reading much more than one at at time. Like potato chips, they're small, compelling, and addictive. Goldfarb writes on his blog about how shorter stories will become more important in the coming future of e-books. I'm inclined to agree.Lastly, I'd say I was wary of this book at first. It' runs in those circles that like "publishing" and "help" to begin with the prefix "self". Self help gurus tend to spend their lives writing very successful books about writing successful books but never actually *writing a book*. Goldfarb takes this tone but actually delivers not just on ideas but also on execution.

There are lots of books out there by authors who profess to be failures at something - life, love, work, commitment, you name it. Some are rueful, some wry, the funnier ones have an engaging self-deprecating air to them. But, most of those books are built around either or both of the following tendencies: a thirty something need to appear as lame as possible, or an inability to disguise the fact that the author is actually pretty darn impressed with himself. Where the need to portray oneself as an incompetent doofus comes from, I don't know. But it wears thin pretty quickly as entertainment, if it wears at all. As to the false modesty boys, well how much time do you spend with the ones you know like that in real life?The beauty of this book is that the author isn't just working a doofus "bit", or playing at being a failure. He has looked long and hard at the world around him and he is not encouraged. And he has turned what he has seen into brutal, funny and telling commentary on his and our current state. There are terrific one-liners, throwaway observations, set pieces, and descriptions. This is very smart, accomplished stuff, not just frat boy humor or tales of drunken excess. And get this, beneath it all there is a bit of sweetness and fundamental decency that makes the acerbic commentary all the more telling. What a remarkably successful failure.

I've been meaning to review "How to Fail" for a while now. Simply, I LOVED this book.A few months ago, I got this free on Kindle. I'd just bought my first ever Kindle and figured if it was free, why the hell not? Shortly after I began reading it I found myself not minding and sometimes even hoping if the metro broke down or was otherwise hamstrung on my way home from work every night (doesn't take much for that to happen here in DC) so I'd have more time to read "How to Fail.""How to Fail" is honest, and it really hit home for me. Having wrangled with some of the same situations as Goldfarb's main character, Stu Fish, does, I related pretty quickly. Stu's outlook on life often hits self-deprecating, and I think those were the best moments for me. Throughout the past year and a half in my life many similar thoughts have struck me, and it's good to know that 1. I am not the only person to have ever thought these things and 2. they can be completely and awesomely hilarious. The character of Stu is who is he is, and I like that there's no real apologies for him, how he acts, or the things he says -- he wasn't gussied up to make him look like a more acceptable novel protagonist. All combined, it made "How to Fail" feel very fresh to me.At the end of the day, if you're looking for something funny, especially something that is often times crass and vulgar (and I mean that in a good way, I swear), and will make you laugh out loud multiple times during a single metro ride home, get this book.

An epically hilarious, realistic view into the life of a modern 30-something bachelor bum!I sat listening to my Kindle read this to me with a number of ales in one hand, a chain of cigarettes in the other, slouched on my couch in my boxers with the TV blaring mindless adverts and a cold, day old, non-specific pizza calling for a second attempt. This was breakfast time.At the very beginning I had, almost literally, pissed myself laughing at the debauched, useless bum that is Stuart, by the end of Chapter One I was like, "Hey! Is this a book or a mirror?!". Chapter Two comes and it's like.. "Hmm.. This is getting disturbingly accurate!", and so on, all while simultaneously bursting out into guffaws (and the accompanying coughing fits) at this losers antics!If you're a "Successful", enjoy this shocking insight into the way real people live (albeit through a fictional character)! If you're a "Stuart", welcome to the most honest, accurate, disturbing realisation of who you actually are!Which ever, be prepared to be appalled, shocked, disturbed and rolling on the floor in hysterics all at the same time!At just under £2.00 it's the best half-a-pint of beer I never drank!

i read this to annoy my other half who is into self help books and frequently threatens/ suggests i read them. it is hilarious especially the first ten chapters. i literally was in pain from laughing (first time I've used my abs in years!).the ways to while away time at work, the drinking, lack of abolutions all were sooo funny. i think men would find it even funnier as a lot of it is about getting laid and other related activities. the book got a bit lost towards the end as I presumed he would end up a happy bum on the streets of new york

Sorry - not my kind of humour. I guess I failed to see the funny side. Maybe I'm getting old !