The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith
When you start reading a book called, "My Boring-Ass Life," I suppose it's not really fair to criticize it for being boring. Kevin Smith is pretty upfront about that in the title. Still, these entries, which are reprinted from his online diary, are sometimes completely dull. It's as if Smith sets out to prove that his life really is incredibly boring, and at times Smith shines in this endeavor.
As for the ass portion of the title, he's got that covered too, as we learn entirely too much about Kevin Smith's bowel movements. It seems that the bathroom is where he updates much of the journal, getting the most portability out of his portable computer. Whether that's where you should read this, I'll leave you to decide. And if there's just one book all year that you read containing the words "anal fissure," well, this may as well be it. Let's just say Kevin Smith, for better or worse, is not a private person. "Uncomfortably candid" is right.
I got this book for Christmas, and I'm just finishing it now. In some ways, I read it in real time. Well, not quite, but the book incorporates 21 months of Smith's life, and it took me about seven months to finish it. And it's not bad in small doses, but by the second half of the book, something interesting happens. It's no longer boring... at all.
It's as if at this point Smith no longer feels compelled to prove how dull his life is. He writes about making "Clerks 2." He writes about taking a small role in "Live Free or Die Hard" with his idol Bruce Willis, and in one of the most gripping parts of the book, he tells of helping his friend Jason (Jay) Mewes kick his heroin habit. There are over 50 pages detailing Mewes' struggles to stay clean over several years, and it's tough to put the book down at that point.
It's fascinating, touching, and funny stuff. My advice is to skim the first half, and then begin to pay more attention once he starts filming "Clerks 2." For the second half, it feels like Smith finally realizes he has a forum to tell stories. He doesn't have to talk about what he watched on his Tivo. He's got tales to tell. Seriously, it took me about six and a half months to read the first 300 pages, and then two weeks to read the last 150 pages.
To be fair, I was reading many other things during this time, and I tended to use this book to cleanse (or sometimes dirty) the reading palate. It's nice to have something like this going when you're trying to read Dickens, Fitzgerald, and other classic authors.
Oh, and finally here's one of the strangest things I learned: In "Mallrats," the studio almost forced Smith to cast Seth Green in the role of Jay, rather than Jason Mewes. I wonder if in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," any thought was given to having Seth Green play the role of the Hollywood Jay, rather than James Van Der Beek.
When you start reading a book called, "My Boring-Ass Life," I suppose it's not really fair to criticize it for being boring. Kevin Smith is pretty upfront about that in the title. Still, these entries, which are reprinted from his online diary, are sometimes completely dull. It's as if Smith sets out to prove that his life really is incredibly boring, and at times Smith shines in this endeavor. As for the ass portion of the title, he's got that covered too, as we learn entirely too much about Kevin Smith's bowel movements. It seems that the bathroom is where he updates much of the journal, getting the most portability out of his portable computer. Whether that's where you should read this, I'll leave you to decide. And if there's just one book all year that you read containing the words "anal fissure," well, this may as well be it. Let's just say Kevin Smith, for better or worse, is not a private person. "Uncomfortably candid" is right.
I got this book for Christmas, and I'm just finishing it now. In some ways, I read it in real time. Well, not quite, but the book incorporates 21 months of Smith's life, and it took me about seven months to finish it. And it's not bad in small doses, but by the second half of the book, something interesting happens. It's no longer boring... at all.
It's as if at this point Smith no longer feels compelled to prove how dull his life is. He writes about making "Clerks 2." He writes about taking a small role in "Live Free or Die Hard" with his idol Bruce Willis, and in one of the most gripping parts of the book, he tells of helping his friend Jason (Jay) Mewes kick his heroin habit. There are over 50 pages detailing Mewes' struggles to stay clean over several years, and it's tough to put the book down at that point.
It's fascinating, touching, and funny stuff. My advice is to skim the first half, and then begin to pay more attention once he starts filming "Clerks 2." For the second half, it feels like Smith finally realizes he has a forum to tell stories. He doesn't have to talk about what he watched on his Tivo. He's got tales to tell. Seriously, it took me about six and a half months to read the first 300 pages, and then two weeks to read the last 150 pages.
To be fair, I was reading many other things during this time, and I tended to use this book to cleanse (or sometimes dirty) the reading palate. It's nice to have something like this going when you're trying to read Dickens, Fitzgerald, and other classic authors.
Oh, and finally here's one of the strangest things I learned: In "Mallrats," the studio almost forced Smith to cast Seth Green in the role of Jay, rather than Jason Mewes. I wonder if in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," any thought was given to having Seth Green play the role of the Hollywood Jay, rather than James Van Der Beek.
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