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thetomatowriter's review
4.0
I had ever since Wensnick was the special reader at my favorite Louisville spoken word series, Speak Social. His reading from "I Was a KFC Food Tester" was really funny and relatable, and he was selling the books for pretty cheap, so my mom got me a copy at the end of the night, and there it sat for over a year, like most of my books, until finally I decided to read it.
And I liked it. I really, REALLY liked it. Wensnick has the perspective of being part of "the first generation to enter the workforce during this recession," bouncing from job to job, usually not doing so well, and ending up pretty strapped for cash. I can relate, especially with the rough year I had in late 2013/early 2014. His writing has the sort of awkward, self-depracating humor that makes me laugh because it feels so familiar. And there are simpler ways I felt like his writing really got me, and a lot of young writers, I think. The random tangents of thoughts that he would write about made me think, "OH that's not just me!" Several of his essays described something that he used to really love as a kid and tried to return to, and sometimes he still enjoyed it, but often it felt like the magic was gone even though he desperately wanted it to still be there. I've had that feeling more and more as I've been "growing up," and it kind of sucks, but the way he put it into writing hit the nail on the head exactly.
It could have been better, though. For some reason, I expected more. I don't know why I held this author that I barely knew anything about to a higher standard. Maybe I looked up to him because he's a young writer who himself had a lot of failures and financial struggles, some even worse than mine it seems, and he turned out to write a bestseller, or maybe I felt some kind of distant kinship because we live in the same city and I feel very possessive of all things Louisville. I don't know, whatever it was, it probably wasn't entirely fair. I went into this book very excited, and at the beginning, it was basically everything I hoped, but then it started to get a little repetitive. I mean, I get it, there's a theme to it, thus the "Everything Was Great Until It Sucked" title, but it seemed like at least half of the essays followed this similar pattern: "I was really excited about this thing, really built it up in my head, and then it happened and it was just ehhh, and I got bummed out by the ehhhness of it." Sometimes the composition even felt basically the same, to the point that it seemed like I was basically reading the same essay several times over, with a different scenario. Things rarely work out the way they seem in your head, and I get that, BELIEVE ME, and it's a good thing to write about...once or twice or even a few times, but it was so. much. A couple of his essays perpetuated some old-fashioned-but-still-upheld-by-most-people-so-again-don't-know-what-I-expected gender norms, which made me kind of uncomfortable, and there was even an essay or two that had subtle hints of snobbery? So, those aspects probably kept this from being a 5-star.
But this book, while it wasn't PERFECT, was definitely more than ehhh. Every time I read one essay that sort of disappointed me, within the next few, I had bounced back to really enjoying it. It was a huge motivator to keep doing what I'm doing with the writing, and his voice was thoroughly entertaining throughout, and almost all the stories relatable and fun. I'm looking forward to reading his other books, especially Broken Piano For President.
And I liked it. I really, REALLY liked it. Wensnick has the perspective of being part of "the first generation to enter the workforce during this recession," bouncing from job to job, usually not doing so well, and ending up pretty strapped for cash. I can relate, especially with the rough year I had in late 2013/early 2014. His writing has the sort of awkward, self-depracating humor that makes me laugh because it feels so familiar. And there are simpler ways I felt like his writing really got me, and a lot of young writers, I think. The random tangents of thoughts that he would write about made me think, "OH that's not just me!" Several of his essays described something that he used to really love as a kid and tried to return to, and sometimes he still enjoyed it, but often it felt like the magic was gone even though he desperately wanted it to still be there. I've had that feeling more and more as I've been "growing up," and it kind of sucks, but the way he put it into writing hit the nail on the head exactly.
It could have been better, though. For some reason, I expected more. I don't know why I held this author that I barely knew anything about to a higher standard. Maybe I looked up to him because he's a young writer who himself had a lot of failures and financial struggles, some even worse than mine it seems, and he turned out to write a bestseller, or maybe I felt some kind of distant kinship because we live in the same city and I feel very possessive of all things Louisville. I don't know, whatever it was, it probably wasn't entirely fair. I went into this book very excited, and at the beginning, it was basically everything I hoped, but then it started to get a little repetitive. I mean, I get it, there's a theme to it, thus the "Everything Was Great Until It Sucked" title, but it seemed like at least half of the essays followed this similar pattern: "I was really excited about this thing, really built it up in my head, and then it happened and it was just ehhh, and I got bummed out by the ehhhness of it." Sometimes the composition even felt basically the same, to the point that it seemed like I was basically reading the same essay several times over, with a different scenario. Things rarely work out the way they seem in your head, and I get that, BELIEVE ME, and it's a good thing to write about...once or twice or even a few times, but it was so. much. A couple of his essays perpetuated some old-fashioned-but-still-upheld-by-most-people-so-again-don't-know-what-I-expected gender norms, which made me kind of uncomfortable, and there was even an essay or two that had subtle hints of snobbery? So, those aspects probably kept this from being a 5-star.
But this book, while it wasn't PERFECT, was definitely more than ehhh. Every time I read one essay that sort of disappointed me, within the next few, I had bounced back to really enjoying it. It was a huge motivator to keep doing what I'm doing with the writing, and his voice was thoroughly entertaining throughout, and almost all the stories relatable and fun. I'm looking forward to reading his other books, especially Broken Piano For President.
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