Fraud Audiobook (Free)

You’ve heard him on This American Life! Today read his publication!

Wherever he’s, David Rakoff is a fish out of water. Whether impersonating Sigmund Freud inside a department store window during the holidays, climbing an icy mountain in cheap loafers, playing an evil modeling agent on a daytime cleaning soap opera, or learning primitive survival skills in the wilds of New Jersey, Rakoff doesn’t belong. Nor does he try to. Still, he constantly discovers himself off in the far-flung hinterlands of our tradition, about Fraud notebook computer or microphone in hand, hoping to conjure that dyed-in-the-wool New York condescension.

And Rakoff attempts to be awful; heaven knows nothing at all succeeds like the inexpensive sneer, but he can’t quite help noticing these are actual humans he’s authoring. In his attempts not to draw any punches, the most damaging blows, generally, land squarely on his own jaw–hilariously satirizing the article writer, not the subject.

And therein lies David Rakoff’s genius and his burgeoning appeal. The wry and the heartfelt join in his prose to resurrect that most neglected of literary virtues: wit.

Browse the blurbs once again on the trunk. They sign the entrance of an excellent brand-new American essayist. (Okay, Canadian.)