(Not That You Asked)

Steve Almond caused a stir last year when, in an open letter in the Boston Globe, he quit a Boston College teaching gig to protest Condoleezza Rice being named the school’s commencement speaker. But Almond is no mere demagogue. He loves Kurt Vonnegut and the Oakland A’s, has suffered many penis-related humiliations, and his nemesis is lit blogger Mark Sarvas—situations detailed in this essay collection of “rants, exploits and obsessions.”

The opener—a series of letters to Oprah Winfrey—offers little more than a light chuckle, but Almond follows it with the poignant story of tracking down his idol Vonnegut a year before his death. He explains, “I write about Vonnegut not because he has left us but because we have left him,” making it clear he’s not just an autograph seeker and quickly earning the reader’s empathy. Several other essays portray Almond as vulnerable and self-aware, namely when he considers his writerly struggles and his fear of accidentally killing his newborn daughter. By the time he gets to the Boston College fiasco and tells off Hannity and Colmes, you want to hoist him on your shoulders and praise him for his righteousness.

Which is why it’s so disappointing when Almond reverts to pure rants. Periodically, he rails about things like fake breasts and unattractiveness, which paint him as an empty, shallow dude. Thank goodness the rants are few and far between. Almond’s prose is most compelling when he tells a story. The self-deprecating humor and sarcasm heighten anticipation, and the climax and resolution of his stories almost always deliver.

The phrase not that you asked permeates the book, and while some of the rants will leave you thinking, Um, I didn’t, most of the collection will make you glad he didn’t wait for permission.—Molly Each