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American Spirit
When Matthew, a fortysomething media executive, finds his Manhattan job, health, and Connecticut marriage crumbling, he goes native: Drinks in his car. Gives drug dealing a shot. Looks for direction in easy-listening rock lyrics, takes a free crafting class at the community center, and gets in a fistfight with a meditation instructor. He also tries jogging.
Soon he’s on a stumbling, sideways vision quest that takes him from strip malls to national parks to a Bali medical clinic, from an unlikely romance with a Hollywood agent specializing in hot young vampire roles to extreme RVing with a disgraced Wall Street trader.
Soon he’s on a stumbling, sideways vision quest that takes him from strip malls to national parks to a Bali medical clinic, from an unlikely romance with a Hollywood agent specializing in hot young vampire roles to extreme RVing with a disgraced Wall Street trader.
344 pages, Hardcover
First published May 28, 2013
About the author
Dan Kennedy
97 books56 followersThe New York novelist, comedy writer, and host of The Moth, has authored only the three books of humour and fiction referenced below.
Dan Kennedy is an American writer living in New York and host of The Moth storytelling podcast. He is the author of three books: "Loser Goes First" (Random House, 2004), "Rock On" (Algonquin, 2008), and "American Spirit: A Novel" (Amazon/Houghton Mifflin, 2013). A widely anthologized humorist, Kennedy first became popular as a columnist on McSweeney's dot net and as a performer of various comedic readings in downtown New York clubs. He tours occasionally, and often performs in and hosts events for The Moth, a storytelling collective founded in 1997 by novelist George Dawes Green (The Juror, Ravens).
AUTHOR DISAMBIGUATION: There are several authors named Dan Kennedy listed on Goodreads. The author described above is a New York based writer and the author of the above referenced titles. There should be no confusion between his works and certain/any Marketing, Dot Com, Sales or Financial Advice books, by other authors of the same name, as he has authored none, is not referenced in any such works, does not in any way endorse said works, and claims no legal responsibility for the advice given therein.
Dan Kennedy is an American writer living in New York and host of The Moth storytelling podcast. He is the author of three books: "Loser Goes First" (Random House, 2004), "Rock On" (Algonquin, 2008), and "American Spirit: A Novel" (Amazon/Houghton Mifflin, 2013). A widely anthologized humorist, Kennedy first became popular as a columnist on McSweeney's dot net and as a performer of various comedic readings in downtown New York clubs. He tours occasionally, and often performs in and hosts events for The Moth, a storytelling collective founded in 1997 by novelist George Dawes Green (The Juror, Ravens).
AUTHOR DISAMBIGUATION: There are several authors named Dan Kennedy listed on Goodreads. The author described above is a New York based writer and the author of the above referenced titles. There should be no confusion between his works and certain/any Marketing, Dot Com, Sales or Financial Advice books, by other authors of the same name, as he has authored none, is not referenced in any such works, does not in any way endorse said works, and claims no legal responsibility for the advice given therein.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
June 28, 2013
I didn't mean to read this book. I was trying to read several books I felt I should read. But I heard the author on NPR and he was funny so I downloaded it and kept telling myself I would let myself read it once I finished reading all that I should read. Well, all that I should have read never got read as I devoured this completely hilarious, bizarre and original book. Sad it ended. Read this, people. It'd be silly not to.
November 17, 2013
I don't want to overhype this but Dan Kennedy is like the new master of American loser fiction. He's so good at the dry delivery and suckerpunch to your heart (sometimes at the same time). I think it's interesting to see some of the crappy ratings and reviews for this book. I think some of these people just want to read something more docile and toothless like Dave Barry. Oh, well. If you like the dark bite of Lipsyte, the perversion of Jonathan Ames, and maybe even a touch of Bret Easton Ellis, seek out this man.
July 14, 2013
There have been four books that I haven't been able to finish reading in my lifetime... Now there are five. :(
I just couldn't get into this book at all. The description on the inside cover flap sounded so intriguing and I was really excited to read the book, yet the writing style wasn't something that I enjoyed. The book was written from an interesting perspective, the narrator refers to the main character as "Matthew" when talking about him yet the book still seems to be from Matthew's perspective... Hmmmm... The writing was also a little too wordy and jumbled for my liking. An example of these wordy and jumbled musings can be found on page 12:
"This is only because the fear has long been that Matthew might wind up one of the marginalized beautiful losers in these songs' lyrics and so the head studies the songs and band since age nine or ten, like a cautionary tale of how Matthew could wind up if things get bad, like a schematic of what might go wrong eventually or suddenly, at any minute."
Overall, I couldn't enjoy this book because the writing style just wasn't my cup of tea. Maybe in a few months when I'm completely out of new books to read I'll try to read this one again... We'll see.
I just couldn't get into this book at all. The description on the inside cover flap sounded so intriguing and I was really excited to read the book, yet the writing style wasn't something that I enjoyed. The book was written from an interesting perspective, the narrator refers to the main character as "Matthew" when talking about him yet the book still seems to be from Matthew's perspective... Hmmmm... The writing was also a little too wordy and jumbled for my liking. An example of these wordy and jumbled musings can be found on page 12:
"This is only because the fear has long been that Matthew might wind up one of the marginalized beautiful losers in these songs' lyrics and so the head studies the songs and band since age nine or ten, like a cautionary tale of how Matthew could wind up if things get bad, like a schematic of what might go wrong eventually or suddenly, at any minute."
Overall, I couldn't enjoy this book because the writing style just wasn't my cup of tea. Maybe in a few months when I'm completely out of new books to read I'll try to read this one again... We'll see.
January 3, 2015
A common writing admonition warns against using the passive voice. Dan Kennedy laughs in the face of such an advice-giver, brazenly scattering such passive sentences as “the mugs are each inspected” (instead of “Matthew inspects each of the mugs”) and “one walks in through the door” (instead of “he walks in through the door”) throughout the book. There is a reason most authors avoid this type of passivity, and there is a reason Kennedy does not. For this particular story--and this particular protagonist, whose detached outlook practically stands up as its own character--the disconnected approach to attributing action reflects the lack of engagement Matthew has with those he encounters.
What Matthew is thinking or doing is often described in terms of what his body parts are doing: the heart thinks this, or the mind thinks that. Again, in this context, the disconnect works: Matthew is not a whole person but, at any given time, he’s the sum of a few of his parts. He tries (rather, “the brain” tries) to guess what others are thinking, but his conclusions are so far off, and the results are both funny and bittersweet. Nobody tells Matthew that his guesswork is faulty, nor does the author tell the reader; we become aware of it through the actions of other characters as interpreted by Matthew’s warped sense of what makes sense. Warped to us, that is, but perfectly coherent in his mind.
It takes a certain finesse for a writer to lead his readers through this subtle path of comical absurdity. When Matthew waves a gun around--not to intimidate anyone, but simply to underline the points he’s making--his young listeners scatter away, leaving Matthew to speculate that it’s their youth making them act in strange ways. It doesn’t even occur to him that their fleeing was a reaction of fright.
Some might argue that American Spirit has no plot. Indeed, I found myself referring to the back cover copy more than once, to remind myself what I was reading about and where it might be going. But Kennedy isn’t one to follow rules, and despite what is often referred to as a given, not every book needs a plot. Or, what constitutes a plot is debatable. There certainly are things that happen throughout the story, and some of those events have consequences relating to later events, so it could also be argued that there is a plot after all. Perhaps the plot of American Spirit is a reflection of its title: we are Americans, and we may not always know where we’re headed or what will happen next, but whatever it is, damn it, we will approach it with spirit.
Or spirits--as in drinking. There’s plenty of alcohol and drugs fueling Matthew’s deviant perspective, but one gets the feeling that those recreational medications only enhance the distorted outlook that was already brewing in him.
I see some of the “couldn’t get into it” reviews and I understand. For some, a voice as unique as this will be an acquired taste. I don’t know Dan--though it happens we attended the same high school at the same time--but my imagined version of him glances at those reviews and shrugs, not caring if some didn’t get it. I aspire to be like that imaginary Dan and I’m jealous of his ability to react that way. I’m a bit like American Spirit’s Matthew in that way--taking an imaginary conversation or behavior and running with it, reacting to it, making my own sense of it which may or may not reflect the real world--and that may be part of why I was drawn to the story.
I highly recommend Dan Kennedy’s previous books, Loser Goes First and Rock On, both memoirs that read like fiction, and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.
What Matthew is thinking or doing is often described in terms of what his body parts are doing: the heart thinks this, or the mind thinks that. Again, in this context, the disconnect works: Matthew is not a whole person but, at any given time, he’s the sum of a few of his parts. He tries (rather, “the brain” tries) to guess what others are thinking, but his conclusions are so far off, and the results are both funny and bittersweet. Nobody tells Matthew that his guesswork is faulty, nor does the author tell the reader; we become aware of it through the actions of other characters as interpreted by Matthew’s warped sense of what makes sense. Warped to us, that is, but perfectly coherent in his mind.
It takes a certain finesse for a writer to lead his readers through this subtle path of comical absurdity. When Matthew waves a gun around--not to intimidate anyone, but simply to underline the points he’s making--his young listeners scatter away, leaving Matthew to speculate that it’s their youth making them act in strange ways. It doesn’t even occur to him that their fleeing was a reaction of fright.
Some might argue that American Spirit has no plot. Indeed, I found myself referring to the back cover copy more than once, to remind myself what I was reading about and where it might be going. But Kennedy isn’t one to follow rules, and despite what is often referred to as a given, not every book needs a plot. Or, what constitutes a plot is debatable. There certainly are things that happen throughout the story, and some of those events have consequences relating to later events, so it could also be argued that there is a plot after all. Perhaps the plot of American Spirit is a reflection of its title: we are Americans, and we may not always know where we’re headed or what will happen next, but whatever it is, damn it, we will approach it with spirit.
Or spirits--as in drinking. There’s plenty of alcohol and drugs fueling Matthew’s deviant perspective, but one gets the feeling that those recreational medications only enhance the distorted outlook that was already brewing in him.
I see some of the “couldn’t get into it” reviews and I understand. For some, a voice as unique as this will be an acquired taste. I don’t know Dan--though it happens we attended the same high school at the same time--but my imagined version of him glances at those reviews and shrugs, not caring if some didn’t get it. I aspire to be like that imaginary Dan and I’m jealous of his ability to react that way. I’m a bit like American Spirit’s Matthew in that way--taking an imaginary conversation or behavior and running with it, reacting to it, making my own sense of it which may or may not reflect the real world--and that may be part of why I was drawn to the story.
I highly recommend Dan Kennedy’s previous books, Loser Goes First and Rock On, both memoirs that read like fiction, and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.
June 19, 2015
I received a copy for free through GoodReads' First Reads.
As someone who is often put off by an overabundance of "style," I began doubting my ability to finish this book on p. 2 with the description of a gas station restroom that begins, "If you were tracking left to right in here, things would look like this as you drifted along making sense of it: empty paper towel dispenser with just a tiny torn tag of why-bother hanging from the stoic slit of its chipped metal grin; then the scratched-up, dented, bereft vending machine..." Something about the bloated verbiage of that paper towel dispenser really made me want to stop right there, in the second paragraph.
My advice for anyone with a similar reaction? Get through the first chapter. The style does stay fairly consistent throughout, but it also develops a natural rhythm (and stops being about gas station restrooms). It's kind of the stream-of-consciousness narrative of a man in crisis—or rather crises, most at least partly of his own creation. While Matthew has difficulty forming coherent sentences and behaves much of the time like a full-bodied myoclonic jerk, you gradually come to appreciate that this was once a functional human being (though I wouldn't have minded a little more evidence of that) who's just really overwhelmed by life right now.
And if you accept that this is ultimately a fable of survival rather than a documentary of a futile downward spiral, it may be easier to enjoy the humor, which I think Alan Tudyk should bring to life if they make a movie out of the book.
As someone who is often put off by an overabundance of "style," I began doubting my ability to finish this book on p. 2 with the description of a gas station restroom that begins, "If you were tracking left to right in here, things would look like this as you drifted along making sense of it: empty paper towel dispenser with just a tiny torn tag of why-bother hanging from the stoic slit of its chipped metal grin; then the scratched-up, dented, bereft vending machine..." Something about the bloated verbiage of that paper towel dispenser really made me want to stop right there, in the second paragraph.
My advice for anyone with a similar reaction? Get through the first chapter. The style does stay fairly consistent throughout, but it also develops a natural rhythm (and stops being about gas station restrooms). It's kind of the stream-of-consciousness narrative of a man in crisis—or rather crises, most at least partly of his own creation. While Matthew has difficulty forming coherent sentences and behaves much of the time like a full-bodied myoclonic jerk, you gradually come to appreciate that this was once a functional human being (though I wouldn't have minded a little more evidence of that) who's just really overwhelmed by life right now.
And if you accept that this is ultimately a fable of survival rather than a documentary of a futile downward spiral, it may be easier to enjoy the humor, which I think Alan Tudyk should bring to life if they make a movie out of the book.
June 23, 2013
An amusing guy-version of an Eat, Pray, Love odyssey. It starts out with the main character tooling around, drinking morning coffee and then noontime beers, in his leased BMW ("the Bavarian land-barge situation"), trying to kill time and hide that he's been fired from his "mid-six" Manhattan publishing job. This leads to clunky attempts at jogging, meditation, ceramics, drug dealing, buffalo spirit seeking, and then a medical holiday in Bali. Funniest if you can appreciate the snark-mocks referencing Elizabeth Gilbert's book about running away to discover herself.
January 13, 2015
I read the first two chapters and quit. I just couldn't get into the book. I tried and tried but I hated the writing style and I just felt like I couldn't focus. The writing style is kind of all over the place like the author is so ADHD that he doesn't know how to string along one thought at a time. It was very confusing. I will not go back and try to finish this one later....it's the second book I've ever had to put down because I couldn't read it.
May 3, 2019
While reading American Spirit by Dan Kennedy, I couldn't help thinking repeatedly to myself that this was what Fight Club would have been like if its nameless narrator had eschewed domestic terrorism and directed his mid-life crisis energy into designer coffee mugs (which surprisingly are not available for sale online). The comparison may not be fair to either book, but they both share the same narrative catalyst of taking a corporate upper-middle class white male, introduce them to rock bottom, and have their reaction be to see if they can drill down deeper.
Kennedy's anti-hero of choice is corporate pop-culture advertising executive Matthew Harris, whose crumbling marriage, dubious health, and sudden unemployment leave him in an existential free fall that, let's be honest, he doesn't handle very well. While many of Matthew's antics are genuinely funny, his rambling internal dialogue that comprises a decent majority of the book's narration is an awe-inspiring stream-of-consciousness philosophical diatribe that volleys back and forth between genuine insight and delusional rationalizing. Matthew's journey turns out to be a spiritual one, albeit not the same as you would find in Eat, Pray, Love (which Matthew reads and repeatedly references indirectly throughout the book). Instead, Matthew embarks on more of the emotionally-stunted vision quest through a soulless cultural wasteland, but far less cynicism and nihilism than you might expect. Kennedy sows enough compassion and hope into Matthew's paranoid tirades to keep him being a sympathetic character no matter how wildly off-target his path takes him.
Kennedy's anti-hero of choice is corporate pop-culture advertising executive Matthew Harris, whose crumbling marriage, dubious health, and sudden unemployment leave him in an existential free fall that, let's be honest, he doesn't handle very well. While many of Matthew's antics are genuinely funny, his rambling internal dialogue that comprises a decent majority of the book's narration is an awe-inspiring stream-of-consciousness philosophical diatribe that volleys back and forth between genuine insight and delusional rationalizing. Matthew's journey turns out to be a spiritual one, albeit not the same as you would find in Eat, Pray, Love (which Matthew reads and repeatedly references indirectly throughout the book). Instead, Matthew embarks on more of the emotionally-stunted vision quest through a soulless cultural wasteland, but far less cynicism and nihilism than you might expect. Kennedy sows enough compassion and hope into Matthew's paranoid tirades to keep him being a sympathetic character no matter how wildly off-target his path takes him.
September 22, 2013
I came to this novel from hearing its author, Dan Kennedy, interviewed on a podcast I love called "Bullseye." On-air, Kennedy was engaging and witty. He also has a great Twitter feed and happens to be the host of "The Moth" podcast, which endeavors to do nothing more than relate great stories told by interesting people from all walks of life.
But while all those elements most certainly add up to a fantastic individual in the literary community, they unfortunately do not necessarily add up to a fantastic novelist. I'm sad to report that American Spirit is kind of a letdown.
Kennedy has the literary trappings down pat: disaffected prose with a trace of irony; a protagonist mired in the quagmire of a modern world that he just doesn't feel connected to; darkly humorous satire on that same world and its abundance of materialism, shallowness, greed and on and on. Kennedy knows what good writing is and he knows how to produce good writing. Ironically, given his devotion to the sharing of other folks' tales in a public forum, it's the storytelling where he comes up short.
American Spirit, for all its skill and hip self-deprecation, just isn't a very compelling read, and there's a strain of unintentional elitism throughout that culminates in a ludicrously upbeat finale that completely undermines all the social commentary that precedes it. The problem starts with Kennedy's protagonist, Matthew, a former music industry executive who has been recently fired for urinating on the floor of his office and now spends his days living out of his car, drinking and smoking copiously. Rather than detailing the chain of events that might have led up to this irrational behavior, Kennedy assumes that being a six-figures-earning music executive with a fancy car and big house is in itself a big enough piece of soul-sucking drudgery to justify it. As a result, Matthew doesn't feel like a character so much as a scenario, a lever for Kennedy to wander aimlessly between digressions on the modern American workforce and an assortment of wacky characters. Matthew is bland and unlikeable, and so adamantly passive he almost seems to have some kind of learning disability, or a brain trauma that keeps him from fully processing anything. I think Kennedy wants to imply that Matthew's aforementioned soul-sucking job and miserable marriage have caused him to crack so profoundly from normal existence he is no longer capable of functioning in the way humans are expected to function. But the stakes just aren't high enough for us to care about this dreary individual, and his bland personality doesn't translate into the accidentally prophetic wisdom all the characters he encounters interpret him as having. This annoying trait of the novel is at its most irritating with a recurring plot thread involving mugs Matthew starts making in a community center crafting class. The sayings Matthew writes on the mugs are cloyingly wry and cool-clever (which he seems oblivious to, of course) and everyone reacts to them as though they are the most brilliant things they've ever seen, including a beautiful Hollywood talent agent whom Matthew meets, and hooks up with, while running drugs to make a little extra...
God, just writing these plot points is annoying me. American Spirit is too contrived and self-aware to be poignant, and too heavy-handed to be smart. Matthew is ultimately a privileged person who takes a departure from his privileged world only to come back to it more privileged than ever. For all its attempted commentary on American life and business, the ultimate message I took away from this book is "The rich get richer." Maybe that was Kennedy's intention but somehow, I don't think so. I think we were supposed to root for this schlub.
But while all those elements most certainly add up to a fantastic individual in the literary community, they unfortunately do not necessarily add up to a fantastic novelist. I'm sad to report that American Spirit is kind of a letdown.
Kennedy has the literary trappings down pat: disaffected prose with a trace of irony; a protagonist mired in the quagmire of a modern world that he just doesn't feel connected to; darkly humorous satire on that same world and its abundance of materialism, shallowness, greed and on and on. Kennedy knows what good writing is and he knows how to produce good writing. Ironically, given his devotion to the sharing of other folks' tales in a public forum, it's the storytelling where he comes up short.
American Spirit, for all its skill and hip self-deprecation, just isn't a very compelling read, and there's a strain of unintentional elitism throughout that culminates in a ludicrously upbeat finale that completely undermines all the social commentary that precedes it. The problem starts with Kennedy's protagonist, Matthew, a former music industry executive who has been recently fired for urinating on the floor of his office and now spends his days living out of his car, drinking and smoking copiously. Rather than detailing the chain of events that might have led up to this irrational behavior, Kennedy assumes that being a six-figures-earning music executive with a fancy car and big house is in itself a big enough piece of soul-sucking drudgery to justify it. As a result, Matthew doesn't feel like a character so much as a scenario, a lever for Kennedy to wander aimlessly between digressions on the modern American workforce and an assortment of wacky characters. Matthew is bland and unlikeable, and so adamantly passive he almost seems to have some kind of learning disability, or a brain trauma that keeps him from fully processing anything. I think Kennedy wants to imply that Matthew's aforementioned soul-sucking job and miserable marriage have caused him to crack so profoundly from normal existence he is no longer capable of functioning in the way humans are expected to function. But the stakes just aren't high enough for us to care about this dreary individual, and his bland personality doesn't translate into the accidentally prophetic wisdom all the characters he encounters interpret him as having. This annoying trait of the novel is at its most irritating with a recurring plot thread involving mugs Matthew starts making in a community center crafting class. The sayings Matthew writes on the mugs are cloyingly wry and cool-clever (which he seems oblivious to, of course) and everyone reacts to them as though they are the most brilliant things they've ever seen, including a beautiful Hollywood talent agent whom Matthew meets, and hooks up with, while running drugs to make a little extra...
God, just writing these plot points is annoying me. American Spirit is too contrived and self-aware to be poignant, and too heavy-handed to be smart. Matthew is ultimately a privileged person who takes a departure from his privileged world only to come back to it more privileged than ever. For all its attempted commentary on American life and business, the ultimate message I took away from this book is "The rich get richer." Maybe that was Kennedy's intention but somehow, I don't think so. I think we were supposed to root for this schlub.
December 5, 2013
There are some vile bits in this book. If you don’t like vile bits don’t read this book or the rest of this review.
The book follows 45-year-old Matthew Harris who is “long, lanky, slightly underweight, now hung-over, semi-moneyed, tall, and medium slim, with no evident interest in shaving.”
He is going through a nervous breakdown thanks to his marriage to “unfaithful, unwieldy, retired fashion model wife” falling apart, and also because he was fired from the job he held for eleven years. The book follows him through this time where he “is in the midst of an endless and rudderless journey on rising seas of anxiety and receding tides of currency.”
(Vile bit) The beginning sees him basically living out of his car, spitting all over it, him going over the incident that made him lose his job where “suddenly taking a leak all over your office is a crime” plus he has a kidney stone which makes blood come out instead of the normal.
The book is written through Matthew’s over-thinking, active and self-destructive mind. This makes him not a nice person. For example, in addition to the above vile things, he goes to a meditation class and thinks, “The instructor has been brought here today to teach me how to relax and not let fear govern my life. I have been brought here today to teach the instructor how to be tense and afraid again.” And his depression makes him “ponder the very real and very urgent shadow of death that seems to come to mind when there’s too much silence.”
He refuses help. “This is what Matthew’s head does every time help comes along… it looks for holes in the argument.” But eventually he comes to realise that he can’t run away from the pain forever and it is time to get his life in order, deal with his kidney stone etc. “Let’s get rid of some of the crutches; let’s ask for help when it is needed; learn to have a little faith that there’s still time, no matter how much was wasted.”
So overall not a book for me, as a happy-go-lucky person, but maybe for others.
The book follows 45-year-old Matthew Harris who is “long, lanky, slightly underweight, now hung-over, semi-moneyed, tall, and medium slim, with no evident interest in shaving.”
He is going through a nervous breakdown thanks to his marriage to “unfaithful, unwieldy, retired fashion model wife” falling apart, and also because he was fired from the job he held for eleven years. The book follows him through this time where he “is in the midst of an endless and rudderless journey on rising seas of anxiety and receding tides of currency.”
(Vile bit) The beginning sees him basically living out of his car, spitting all over it, him going over the incident that made him lose his job where “suddenly taking a leak all over your office is a crime” plus he has a kidney stone which makes blood come out instead of the normal.
The book is written through Matthew’s over-thinking, active and self-destructive mind. This makes him not a nice person. For example, in addition to the above vile things, he goes to a meditation class and thinks, “The instructor has been brought here today to teach me how to relax and not let fear govern my life. I have been brought here today to teach the instructor how to be tense and afraid again.” And his depression makes him “ponder the very real and very urgent shadow of death that seems to come to mind when there’s too much silence.”
He refuses help. “This is what Matthew’s head does every time help comes along… it looks for holes in the argument.” But eventually he comes to realise that he can’t run away from the pain forever and it is time to get his life in order, deal with his kidney stone etc. “Let’s get rid of some of the crutches; let’s ask for help when it is needed; learn to have a little faith that there’s still time, no matter how much was wasted.”
So overall not a book for me, as a happy-go-lucky person, but maybe for others.
July 20, 2013
Dan Kennedy has written a book that makes you understand why you should appreciate the life you have. After Matthew, a media executive in Manhattan gets the news no one wants to hear from his Doctor his life spirals out of control.
Suddenly the required home in the suburb's, the German car that leases for $1750 a month, and his marriage to Kristin (former model) who is sleeping with everyone but him, loses it's appeal.
His Boss, who brings his dog to work,and the dog who pee's wherever it chooses makes Matthew decide to "mark" his own territory. Probably not the best idea, since his boss walks into his office to find Matthew with his pant's down whizzing away.
Fired on the spot, Matthew is lost with what to do. He tells no one, certainly not his trophy wife and continues to leave his burb home every morning. And so begins Matthews life after leaving it all behind...
I totally enjoyed this book and the trials and tribulations that Matthew goes through to find the meaning of it all. Being a baby boomer it all made sense to me. Thank you to Dan Kennedy for writing American Spirit and Goodreads for making it possibly for me to read it.
Suddenly the required home in the suburb's, the German car that leases for $1750 a month, and his marriage to Kristin (former model) who is sleeping with everyone but him, loses it's appeal.
His Boss, who brings his dog to work,and the dog who pee's wherever it chooses makes Matthew decide to "mark" his own territory. Probably not the best idea, since his boss walks into his office to find Matthew with his pant's down whizzing away.
Fired on the spot, Matthew is lost with what to do. He tells no one, certainly not his trophy wife and continues to leave his burb home every morning. And so begins Matthews life after leaving it all behind...
I totally enjoyed this book and the trials and tribulations that Matthew goes through to find the meaning of it all. Being a baby boomer it all made sense to me. Thank you to Dan Kennedy for writing American Spirit and Goodreads for making it possibly for me to read it.
April 25, 2014
An odd, easy read. Not especially good, but there are some gems in here that keep you reading, hoping to find another one. My personal favorite was an anecdote about the protagonist's friend camping in Yellowstone, who saw a bear outside his RV, snorted a few lines of coke, and then attacked the bear with a formica table top. The ending is absolutely awful, though. Maybe consider stopping the book once the main character gets to Bali.
June 12, 2013
Kennedy proves himself a master at rendering the slow-bleeding protagonist who must suffer through the diminishment of his facade in order to find redemption. Who among us does not wear a mask that eventually must be removed to face the music? Easy to sketch, difficult to turn into post-modern poetry. Kennedy succeeds beautifully at the task.
June 21, 2013
The only problem with this brilliant darkly comic novel is that if you're trying to write your own darkly comic novel, American Spirit might make you start weeping in despair at the inadequacy of your own talent. Otherwise, highly recommended.
August 12, 2013
Man, this started out so strong. It was hilarious and full of pathos; at times I thought it felt a little Fight Clubby, too. I'm not sure if the schtick got old or what, but I just don't feel like it finished as strong as it started. I would still recommend it, though.
June 17, 2013
DNF - read about 100 pages, didn't like the writing style.
October 26, 2020
“in America these days, one’s forties seem to start at twenty-five.” Maybe I’m mistaken, but it seems that the opposite is actually true. I’m 30, never married, don’t own a home, have only recently stumbled into anything even remotely career-like and it’s not super-unusual. Whereas, before, in America, all of that would have been taken care of by the time I was, what, 15?
Chapter ends then blank page so Chapter 2 will start on the right hand page. Blank page has no page number and I immediately think of how to format this. Formatting sucks.
50 pages in and I have no real sense of who this guy is. There’s too much hipstery McSweeney’s veneer to be a corporate big wig. The jog loss and fashion model wife and BMW all imply an upper middle to upper class existence that doesn’t match with sneering at yuppies and saying things like, “[the perfect person] is probably not daydreaming of buying guns…” (which could have come from a Regret Instruction Manual.
Plot Summary: So this guy who works at some sort of media company (? I think, I don’t fully remember) pees all over his office one day for no real good reason. His boss’s dog pees in the office and this is, like, supposed to make a point or something. So he’s fired. And basically decides to Bukowski out his life. I don’t really know why. His wife doesn’t entirely love him or does and he’s dumb. I don’t know. I think this whole thing is meant to set up a satire of American life, but nothing’s ever really satirized all that hard, or at all. The biggest satire is coming up with different words to fit inside the BMW acronym. Something about putting sayings on coffee mugs that he gets rich from. He spends some time in Yellowstone, but nothing really comes of that. Nothing really comes of anything (but it’s not supposed to be that way; if it were, then it would be good satire). Bah.
The constant fever-dream makes it hard to track what’s actually happened. Not sure when his marriage officially dissolved. Or if it did. Still, even after finishing.
“This is land that leaves you sitting next to your own ghost at the end of the day.”
So, this guy dives headfirst into the despair rabbithole (wakes up drinking, starts smoking, does whatever drugs he can find, buys a gun), does absolutely no self-introspection and is rewarded handsomely (hot young girlfriend, tons of money, relieved of physical pain). Yep, American Spirit indeed. This place sucks.
This is why the book isn’t satire. Your character who’s supposed to be a shithead (I think) is rewarded handsomely.
Chapter ends then blank page so Chapter 2 will start on the right hand page. Blank page has no page number and I immediately think of how to format this. Formatting sucks.
50 pages in and I have no real sense of who this guy is. There’s too much hipstery McSweeney’s veneer to be a corporate big wig. The jog loss and fashion model wife and BMW all imply an upper middle to upper class existence that doesn’t match with sneering at yuppies and saying things like, “[the perfect person] is probably not daydreaming of buying guns…” (which could have come from a Regret Instruction Manual.
Plot Summary: So this guy who works at some sort of media company (? I think, I don’t fully remember) pees all over his office one day for no real good reason. His boss’s dog pees in the office and this is, like, supposed to make a point or something. So he’s fired. And basically decides to Bukowski out his life. I don’t really know why. His wife doesn’t entirely love him or does and he’s dumb. I don’t know. I think this whole thing is meant to set up a satire of American life, but nothing’s ever really satirized all that hard, or at all. The biggest satire is coming up with different words to fit inside the BMW acronym. Something about putting sayings on coffee mugs that he gets rich from. He spends some time in Yellowstone, but nothing really comes of that. Nothing really comes of anything (but it’s not supposed to be that way; if it were, then it would be good satire). Bah.
The constant fever-dream makes it hard to track what’s actually happened. Not sure when his marriage officially dissolved. Or if it did. Still, even after finishing.
“This is land that leaves you sitting next to your own ghost at the end of the day.”
So, this guy dives headfirst into the despair rabbithole (wakes up drinking, starts smoking, does whatever drugs he can find, buys a gun), does absolutely no self-introspection and is rewarded handsomely (hot young girlfriend, tons of money, relieved of physical pain). Yep, American Spirit indeed. This place sucks.
This is why the book isn’t satire. Your character who’s supposed to be a shithead (I think) is rewarded handsomely.
June 12, 2018
I didn't hate this book, but I never really gelled with the author's choice of voice. It felt like the author was desperate to read like a mix between Hunter S. Thompson and Chuck Palahniuk, but it ultimately came off reading like a book from the @GuyInYourMFA twitter account.
September 8, 2014
It took me a while to get into this book – mainly because my husband was going through a similar health scare and it was a little too close to home. I persevered though and was very glad that I had. This book is a well written, very witty tale about Matthew, a forty-something media executive who has hit crisis mode in every aspect of his life; his marriage has broken down, he’s screwed his job up and his health is suffering.
Matthew launches on a life-altering escapade that sees him dealing drugs, trying his hand at mug design, a stay in a national park with his friend and two crazy tag-ons. He finds romance in an unlikely place and then manages to screw that up too.
This is an absolute hoot of a read, there are plenty of laugh out loud moments – for me, the funniest part was when Matthew is staying in the log cabin and the neighbour is telling him about the bear encounters. Matthew’s thoughts on this are hilarious!
I actually did not think I was going to enjoy this book, given what was going on in my own life at the time, but I am so glad I continued with it because it brought much needed laughter to my life at a crazy time.
Very well written. Lots of laughs and even when Matthew is being a jerk you cannot help but feel for him. Very poignant too, as the book follows Matthew on his journey of self discovery right through to his operation in Bali. After my initial reluctance I absolutely loved this book and would highly recommend it to everyone. It really is a funny book and brilliant read!
***** 5 stars. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!
Matthew launches on a life-altering escapade that sees him dealing drugs, trying his hand at mug design, a stay in a national park with his friend and two crazy tag-ons. He finds romance in an unlikely place and then manages to screw that up too.
This is an absolute hoot of a read, there are plenty of laugh out loud moments – for me, the funniest part was when Matthew is staying in the log cabin and the neighbour is telling him about the bear encounters. Matthew’s thoughts on this are hilarious!
I actually did not think I was going to enjoy this book, given what was going on in my own life at the time, but I am so glad I continued with it because it brought much needed laughter to my life at a crazy time.
Very well written. Lots of laughs and even when Matthew is being a jerk you cannot help but feel for him. Very poignant too, as the book follows Matthew on his journey of self discovery right through to his operation in Bali. After my initial reluctance I absolutely loved this book and would highly recommend it to everyone. It really is a funny book and brilliant read!
***** 5 stars. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!
October 16, 2013
Those familiar with Dan Kennedy’s work (as host of the storytellers podcast, The Moth, or his work for the literary publication, McSweeney's), are most likely familiar with how Kennedy crafts comedy out of life’s darker elements. His knack for writing has already been proven in short form. His darker subject matter (substance abuse, financial collapse, depression and death) are all tackled, with biting humor and for the most part, successfully, in this novel.
Kennedy’s protagonist, Matthew, a media executive, after being fired, takes out on a seemingly aimless trek around the suburbs of New York and beyond (while wasted on a combination of booze, pills and animosity). Matthew even takes up drug dealing in order to buy a secondhand gun, starts a small business manufacturing "Successories"-style ceramic mugs with quotes like “God will help you find a gun if you’re grateful”. Amongst his adventures, he has an affair with a high-powered Hollywood agent, hangs out with a bunch of hippy-dippy spiritual crazies in an RV, terrorizing Yellowstone.
Overall, the novel serves as a satirical examination of the American dream in a culture consumed by the superficial, and one persons jumping-off point. A entertaining and thought provoking novel that should please those unfamiliar with Kennedy's other works.
Kennedy’s protagonist, Matthew, a media executive, after being fired, takes out on a seemingly aimless trek around the suburbs of New York and beyond (while wasted on a combination of booze, pills and animosity). Matthew even takes up drug dealing in order to buy a secondhand gun, starts a small business manufacturing "Successories"-style ceramic mugs with quotes like “God will help you find a gun if you’re grateful”. Amongst his adventures, he has an affair with a high-powered Hollywood agent, hangs out with a bunch of hippy-dippy spiritual crazies in an RV, terrorizing Yellowstone.
Overall, the novel serves as a satirical examination of the American dream in a culture consumed by the superficial, and one persons jumping-off point. A entertaining and thought provoking novel that should please those unfamiliar with Kennedy's other works.
August 14, 2016
American Spirit by Dan Kennedy is a clinical examination of a soul in crisis. Suffering from a potentially serious undiagnosed health ailment, Matthew, a fortysomething executive has additional complications to contend with: a cheating spouse, loss of youth and loss of job. Faced with these dire matters, Matthew tries to cobble together some meaning and direction in his life. Before taking his one-man sideshow on the road west, he attempts various balms for his soul: therapy, drinking, jogging, yoga and crafting classes until gun ownership and a foray into drug dealing seems like a wise choice. Though I admired the many searing and sometimes poetic observations about American culture and quest for self-help, the bulk of the story is told at a cold distance that doesn’t inspire compassion toward Matthew’s plight. Kennedy has proved his talent for the humorous in Loser Goes First, but don’t go looking for hilarity here aside from a few choice passages such as when Matthew tries to understand millennials or teenage girls’ fascination with vampires. From an ugly and sometimes tedious first half, the book improves along the way and ultimately reaches a satisfying conclusion. The book is worth experiencing mainly for the occasional but gloriously caustic indictments of American culture.
June 24, 2016
I will return to this author again, as this book gripped me with snort out loud laughter, despair, and sympathetic union with the main character Matthew. I found the book on Kindle Unlimited and chose it out of a synchronized mistake. I thought it was Dan Savage, not Dan Kennedy... oops. (They are both Dan's right); sometimes mistaken identities can make good traveling partners.
The author gets the state of manhood today. We are an endangered species. Disinterestedly developed. Immature. Confused. Angry. Scared. Confused. Confused again. The fault: is partly commercialism, and partly the strong women in a man's life. The crisis began when our our moms sprayed our manly stink with apple spray; and so the denuding process began. Men, now barely manage. We pay our bills, and we smile because its part of the uniform. Manhood never shines in public, with out the denuding scent of female. We love our wives but forget what it means to be
a man.
I think you will enjoy unless you are too hooked into the politically correct matrix.
The author gets the state of manhood today. We are an endangered species. Disinterestedly developed. Immature. Confused. Angry. Scared. Confused. Confused again. The fault: is partly commercialism, and partly the strong women in a man's life. The crisis began when our our moms sprayed our manly stink with apple spray; and so the denuding process began. Men, now barely manage. We pay our bills, and we smile because its part of the uniform. Manhood never shines in public, with out the denuding scent of female. We love our wives but forget what it means to be
a man.
I think you will enjoy unless you are too hooked into the politically correct matrix.
August 25, 2013
I heard the author on the radio one morning and he made me laugh with his descriptions of competitive meditation. I bought the book because I figured it would be equally funny.
And it was, though the humor (which was laugh-out-loud to me) was interspersed with middle-age philosophizing. I was certainly never bored, but there were passages that seemed out of place in this particular novel.
I was happy to find an e-reader version so I could read it on a long summer flight. (Reading it on a plane made the laugh-out-loud moments a little awkward, though now that everyone watches their own movies or TV choices, that's less awkward than it used to be.) I discovered that I hate reading in e-reader format, so I have since bought the book in a proper paper form. I look forward to reading it again and thinking more about how certain passages relate to the story as a whole, now that I know the journey the story takes.
And it was, though the humor (which was laugh-out-loud to me) was interspersed with middle-age philosophizing. I was certainly never bored, but there were passages that seemed out of place in this particular novel.
I was happy to find an e-reader version so I could read it on a long summer flight. (Reading it on a plane made the laugh-out-loud moments a little awkward, though now that everyone watches their own movies or TV choices, that's less awkward than it used to be.) I discovered that I hate reading in e-reader format, so I have since bought the book in a proper paper form. I look forward to reading it again and thinking more about how certain passages relate to the story as a whole, now that I know the journey the story takes.
December 22, 2013
This book should only be read in large chunks. Kennedy has such a unique voice that I found I always needed a few pages to get sucked into his rhythms. When the book is successful it's the kind of fiction you want to read with a highlighter.
Lines like, "Guns don't kill people, a misguided grasp of one's place in the universe, gleaned from intermittent exposure to bestselling self-help books, kills people. Well, that and guns." tickle the funny bone with an intelligence and truth that Kennedy laces through the story.
But, there are still more than a few sections where the book feels long and the writing is over-indulgent. I get it. You're good at words. Can something happen now?
For better or for worse it reads a bit like it wants to be a screenplay with James Franco. The lead character has this great inner-life and Kennedy makes you love him for all his faults.
I'm left with mixed feelings about the whole thing.
Lines like, "Guns don't kill people, a misguided grasp of one's place in the universe, gleaned from intermittent exposure to bestselling self-help books, kills people. Well, that and guns." tickle the funny bone with an intelligence and truth that Kennedy laces through the story.
But, there are still more than a few sections where the book feels long and the writing is over-indulgent. I get it. You're good at words. Can something happen now?
For better or for worse it reads a bit like it wants to be a screenplay with James Franco. The lead character has this great inner-life and Kennedy makes you love him for all his faults.
I'm left with mixed feelings about the whole thing.
August 9, 2016
An epic scope, it's more like a moth styled storytelling, which the author is member of, than it is a humor book. A much more ambitious undertaking than his comedy writing which at first caught me by surprise because I had heard the NPR review and that seemed to keep playing it up as funny. It's not that kind of book, for better or worse, which is not to say there aren't hilarious parts in it (The drunk jogging habits, the high-octane Hunter Thompson-esque journey into Bali, his fear of bears and the part when his Wall Street friend teaches him how to protect himself against them, etc.). But a lot of characters, really all of the characters, are facing a heavy heart and lives that are changing or falling apart, and they're all doing so with a wise and dark wit.
March 18, 2015
Ok read
Picked up this book because I'm a fan of The Moth podcast and thought it's gotta be a good read if the host of the moth wrote it, right?
Not really.
Maybe it was just that I could never relate or even sympathize with the main character. He had a poor attitude and outlook on life. He reminded me of some people I know that are never happy and think that everyone and everything in this world are against them and don't realize the only person that's against them are themselves. I actually was rooting against this guy the whole time and hoping he would off himself so the story would be over. Though I'll admit I was a little happy for the guy at the end.
Ultimately it was well written, but I hated the main character.
Picked up this book because I'm a fan of The Moth podcast and thought it's gotta be a good read if the host of the moth wrote it, right?
Not really.
Maybe it was just that I could never relate or even sympathize with the main character. He had a poor attitude and outlook on life. He reminded me of some people I know that are never happy and think that everyone and everything in this world are against them and don't realize the only person that's against them are themselves. I actually was rooting against this guy the whole time and hoping he would off himself so the story would be over. Though I'll admit I was a little happy for the guy at the end.
Ultimately it was well written, but I hated the main character.
June 3, 2016
I truly struggle with how to review this one. It was between a two-star rating and a five-star rating. No middle ground. I went with five. Why? Because I think I'm going to remember this novel - this story - for a long, long time.
American Spirit was tough to read. Its style was completely unusual and, frankly, exhausting. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. The main character was exhausted. The way the story was told fit. The novel was, at times, laugh-out-loud funny and, at other times, soul crushing. I thought of giving up more than once but was always drawn back in. Ultimately, I'm glad I didn't give up. It was worth plowing through the tough spots, just as our protagonist found out himself.
American Spirit was tough to read. Its style was completely unusual and, frankly, exhausting. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. The main character was exhausted. The way the story was told fit. The novel was, at times, laugh-out-loud funny and, at other times, soul crushing. I thought of giving up more than once but was always drawn back in. Ultimately, I'm glad I didn't give up. It was worth plowing through the tough spots, just as our protagonist found out himself.
August 12, 2013
I could not get into this book. It tells the story of a man's early mid-life crisis. Matthew is a 30-something businessman, who gets fired from his job, but doesn't want to tell his wife so he pretends to go to work every day. Really though, he's jogging, drinking, dealing drugs, crafting, traveling, and dating. He's a big old mess, trying to find the meaning of life. It's supposed to be a male version of Eat Pray Love, all while it makes fun of it. The story actually really interested me, but the writing style was so strange and unfocused, I had a hard time following along and didn't finish it.
I received this book from NetGalley for review purposes.
I received this book from NetGalley for review purposes.
October 3, 2013
I liked this book. A lot. Reminded me of some if my early attempts at writing fiction, with a rambling narrator hell-belt on his own destruction. Reading this much better version of my writing style, I am reminded how hard it is to get it right. Kennedy does. Despite long, meandering sentences that threaten to derail the narrative. Despite the unwieldy tangents and scattershot navel-gazing. Despite the almost unbearable love story that doesn't ring true. At the bottom, under the front seat behind beer bottles and porno mags, is a heart. If you like your fiction a little less messy, skip this. But if you like a hot mess of fun and angst an itty bitty silver linings, give this a shot ...
November 5, 2013
Fiction with dark humor. A story of a 30 something man in an early mid life crisis. A business man gets fired but continues to let his wife think when he leaves in the morning he is going to work as usual. Takes up his time with jogging,ceramic crafting, meditation, drinking and dealing drugs, traveling,dating and sex, and financial collapse. One crises after another. Tries to find the meaning of life. Not my normal reading material, depressing. A life letting himself down,one day at a time, such tragedy. An interesting read.
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