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A review by erin_oriordan_is_reading_again
Dear Mister Essay Writer Guy: Advice and Confessions on Writing, Love, and Cannibals by Dinty W. Moore
5.0
I picked this out from Blogging for Books (free book in exchange for review), although I was not familiar with the writer Dinty W. Moore. If Wikipedia is to be believed, the essayist is actually named Dinty W. Moore, not after the Canadian hockey player (or the corned beef sandwich) but after a character in the comic strip 'Bringing Up Father.' That makes him sound ancient, but he is in fact a Baby Boomer, a few years younger than my parents.
Moore won me over early in this essay collection, with this sentence, "I believe the best way to avoid coming off as a male chauvinist pig might be to not be a male chauvinist pig?" The question mark is unnecessary; the advice is sound.
The questions that spark each essay (or, in some cases, doodle) come from other nonfiction writers, including [a:Cheryl Strayed|155717|Cheryl Strayed|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1320771235p2/155717.jpg], [a:Diane Ackerman|6637|Diane Ackerman|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1202835118p2/6637.jpg], and [a:Roxane Gay|3360355|Roxane Gay|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1407278304p2/3360355.jpg]. My personal favorites include Moore's anecdotes about other writers; he has one on George Plimpton and another with Nelson Algren.
Moore is funny. Quite funny. He has a quirky sense of humor, which happens to be the kind of sense of humor that most appeals to me. This is one of those books I laughed out loud to, causing my husband to ask, "What are you laughing at?" Just the thing I'm usually laughing at, dear: writers' meta jokes about punctuation and non sequiturs.
Moore won me over early in this essay collection, with this sentence, "I believe the best way to avoid coming off as a male chauvinist pig might be to not be a male chauvinist pig?" The question mark is unnecessary; the advice is sound.
The questions that spark each essay (or, in some cases, doodle) come from other nonfiction writers, including [a:Cheryl Strayed|155717|Cheryl Strayed|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1320771235p2/155717.jpg], [a:Diane Ackerman|6637|Diane Ackerman|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1202835118p2/6637.jpg], and [a:Roxane Gay|3360355|Roxane Gay|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1407278304p2/3360355.jpg]. My personal favorites include Moore's anecdotes about other writers; he has one on George Plimpton and another with Nelson Algren.
Moore is funny. Quite funny. He has a quirky sense of humor, which happens to be the kind of sense of humor that most appeals to me. This is one of those books I laughed out loud to, causing my husband to ask, "What are you laughing at?" Just the thing I'm usually laughing at, dear: writers' meta jokes about punctuation and non sequiturs.