Superbad: Stories & Pieces

by Ben Greenman

Ben Greenman's raucous new collection of stories and pieces ranges from the traditional to the impossible, from the Italian to the Russian, from the musical to the minimal. Greenman constructs layer... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0970335571
• ISBN13: 9780970335579
• Release Date: November 2001
• Publisher: McSweeney's
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

rawk!

Ben Greenman's writing is so funny that my roommate asked me what I was reading because it sounded hilarious. Ben Greenman's writing is contagious. Beware, it may lift your spirit, brighten your day, and make you feel like the 2000 election was somehow OK!

Funny and Smart

I ran across this book at a friend's house and I was pretty impressed. There are at least a dozen different ideas, sometimes at cross-purposes, but they're handled very intelligently. The reviewer who found this book pretentious has the wrong idea, I think -- parts of it are supposed to parody pretention. To each his own, I guess, but I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to more books from this author.

Family Business

I noticed that the first review of this book was supposedly written by the author's mother, which is both funny and probably not true. I have followed Ben Greenman's work on McSweeneys since he started publishing, and I can say with some confidence that he is one of the twistiest writers I have ever read. Sometimes this is slightly annoying -- there's so much trickery built into every piece that it can be exhausting. But sometimes it can be exhilarating. I have been really looking forward to this book for months, both because it collects some of my favorite pieces from the McSweeneys site, and because there seem to be lots of new pieces. One of them, a story called "Snapshot," is one of the best short stories I have ever read, and it's not a humor piece at all. This is the least boring book I have read in years.

I'm Not Sure This Works

I posted a review of this book earlier today, in which I said that I am a longtime fan of Ben Greenman's work. I also said that I think that his mother didn't reall write the other review on this page: that kind of clever self-referencing is exactly what Ben Greenman's work is all about, at least the things he has published on McSweeneys. I'm not sure that it posted correctly. Am I doing something wrong?

A Brilliant First Book

I was mesmerized by this superb collection of short stories and pieces. Greenman moves from the ironic to the touching with ease. "Snapshot" and "In Shuvalov's Library" are among the most fascinating stories because they so elegantly evoke the great Russian literature of the past. On the other hand, "Elian the Musical" was just flat out fun. My only criticism: Superbad was too short. On this, his father and I agree.