My Goodness!: a Cynic`s Short-Lived Search for Sainthood - Hardcover

Queenan, Joe

3.39

175 ratings by Goodreads

9780786865536: My Goodness!: a Cynic`s Short-Lived Search for Sainthood

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786865539 ISBN 13: 9780786865536

Publisher: Hyperion, 2000

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In a hilarious look at the idea of "good," the noted curmudgeon cultural critic surveys the history of goodness in Western Civilizationfrom Jesus to Stingand concludes that he should try to be nice himself.

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Review:

Joe Queenan knows what a maleficent scuzz he is. In My Goodness, he admits he wrote a Barbra Streisand profile called "Sacred Cow" in his scurrilous book If You're Talking to Me, Your Career Must Be in Trouble. He apologises for calling Sinead O'Connor "a short, bald distaff Bono" and for wishing Mr. Holland's Opus had ended "the same way as Braveheart, with Richard Dreyfuss getting his entrails ripped out while a cast of thousands cheered". Queenan figures that most of the 1,441,575 words he wrote from 1986-98 (including every word in Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler) were mean, containing "47,678 nasty remarks, or one cruel remark every two sentences".

So Queenan embraced virtue as passionately as Jackie Collins' heroes embrace vice. (You'll have to read page 146 of My Goodness to get this vulgar in-joke.) He began performing "RAKs" and "SABs" (random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty). He bought the most putrid movies by Robin Williams and Kim Basinger to support their do-good deeds. He sipped shade-grown coffee and kale-based shakes. He wrote cheques on soy and hemp paper for the Dog Toy Drive and Linda Tripp. He started "The Make a Wish, As Long As the Wish Doesn't Cost More Than 50 Bucks Foundation". He urged Tom's of Maine to put "cuddly rats" on its toothpaste tubes in solidarity with downtrodden vermin.

After six months, Queenan went back to work as a maleficent scuzz. But you can read this book and share his one brief, shining moment as the moral equivalent of Susan Sarandon. --Tim Appelo, Amazon.com

Book Description:

My Goodness traces a bad man's attempts - no, really - to do truly good things.

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