Guys Write for Guys Read

Chris Simmons is reference librarian at Queen’s University in
Kingston.

This anthology of memoirs, comics, short stories, and drawings is a rich
collection of material from a plethora of well-known artistic talents,
including Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, and Matt Groening, as well as
contributors from The Onion, Esquire, and Sports Illustrated. At first
sight I imagined slogging through stereotypical stories of the kind
known as “guy stuff,” but it is just this stereotype that the book
sets out to debunk. Each work is another complication of what we
normally assume to define the male experience, with themes such as
initiation, male rivalry, and experimentation figuring prominently
alongside plenty of the strange stuff of childhood that defies
categorization. Neil Gaiman, for example, writes about misadventures
with homemade toffee that a dangerous book led him to.

Many of the pieces included are not representative of the writer’s
work, but rather deal with his personal life. The lack of representative
content somewhat diminishes the book’s effectiveness as a true
anthology. Still, the anecdotes— including a disappointing encounter
between Daniel Pinkwater and his Lone Star Ranger hero—often make for
great reading. Recommended.