The Harm in Asking
My Clumsy Encounters with the Human Race
Ratings1
Average rating3
15
My Clumsy Encounters with the Human Race
Ratings1
Average rating3
Welcome to the perverse and hilarious mind of Sara Barron. In The Harm in Asking, she boldly addresses the bizarre indignities of everyday life: from invisible pets to mobster roommates, from a hatred of mayonnaise to an unrequited love of k.d. lang, from the ruinous side effect of broccoli to the sheer delight of a male catalogue model. In a voice that is incisive and entirely her own, Barron proves herself the master of the awkward, and she achieves something wonderful and rare: a book that makes you laugh out loud. Simply put: if you read it, you will never be the same.* *That's not true. You'll probably stay the same. But you'll have laughed a lot. And you'll have learned a fun fact about Jessica Simpson's home spray. See? You didn't even know she had a home spray! The learning has already begun.
Reviews with the most likes.
I was asking for trouble when I decided to read this book. Sara is not my generation. I knew that going in. I am not her anticipated audience. I knew that. She makes a living by writing to startle people a little. I knew that.
What was I thinking?
It was a painful read. Barron is blunt and it's hard for people of my generation to listen people of hers, who appear to have slid through life without facing of the real issues of, say, people who don't have clean water in Africa, and yet who whine endlessly about the little disappointments of the universe. I had to keep reminding myself that little disappointments can feel like lack of clean water, perhaps.
