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Fraud
- Narrated by: David Rakoff
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
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Fraud
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Publisher's Summary
You've heard him on This American Life! Now read his book!
Wherever he is, David Rakoff is a fish out of water. Whether impersonating Sigmund Freud in a department store window during the holidays, climbing an icy mountain in cheap loafers, playing an evil modeling agent on a daytime soap opera, or learning primitive survival skills in the wilds of New Jersey, Rakoff doesn't belong. Nor does he try to. Still, he continually finds himself off in the far-flung hinterlands of our culture, notebook or microphone in hand, hoping to conjure that dyed-in-the-wool New York condescension.
And Rakoff tries to be nasty; heaven knows nothing succeeds like the cheap sneer, but he can't quite help noticing that these are actual human beings he's writing about. In his attempts not to pull any punches, the most damaging blows, more often than not, land squarely on his own jaw - hilariously satirizing the 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.
Read the blurbs again on the back. They signal the arrival of a brilliant new American essayist. (Okay, Canadian.)
Critic Reviews
"Rakoff possesses a sociologist's eye for places where today’s consoling myths reside." (New York Times)
"David Rakoff’s Fraud showcases his rapier wit, slashing in all directions with slice-of-life insights and cutting remarks, sometimes nicking himself with self-deprecation in his dexterous duello with the American experience." (Publishers Weekly [starred review])
"Rakoff likes to paint himself as urbane to a fault, an outsider anywhere unpaved. But then, in the woods or on a mountaintop, he reveals himself, despite his searing and hilarious observations, to be a completely unrelenting romantic." (Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius)
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What listeners say about Fraud
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 19-10-2015
Fascinating. Hilarious.Utterly brilliant wordsmith
Would you consider the audio edition of Fraud to be better than the print version?
Rakoff has a delivery that hammers home the nuances of his writing, so this is a great candidate for an audiobook. Also, being a series of short essays, it is more forgiving to listen to in sections than one long novel.
What other book might you compare Fraud to, and why?
Rakoff gets inevitably compared to Sedaris, being another NPR star, and Sedaris being one of the most popular humorous essayists of the past decade. That said, I'd take Rakoff any day of the week if I had to choose. Sedaris is wonderful, but doesn't have the sharply honed and polished prose that Rakoff exudes on every page.
What does David Rakoff bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
His delivery heightens the self-mockery, and mock horror he feels about himself and the world. Conversely, when he makes a really thoughtful and touching point, he can switch to being very sincere without it being a jarring moment.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
It's a book I would listen to in sections or whole - it's simply that wonderful.
Any additional comments?
If your humor is dark, dry, savagely self-deprecating and cerebral and you don't already have this, buy it now and savor its genius.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 28-12-2021
Beautiful writing wonderfully performed
I knew David Rakoff through his work on “this American life”, and the collection of essays is a fantastic introduction to his longer form writing. Any book of his is well worth getting the self read audiobook version. I only wish there was more of his work on Audible!
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