Bingo Square: No Money! (I got this from the tiny free library nearby)
This is a memoir come advice book I guess. It covers most of Offerman’s life from birth to early career, Parks and Rec success, and meeting his wife, Megan Mullally. Interspersed throughout are humorous takes on how to be a man, discussions on religion, woodworking, and so on. I guess what you’d expect from a book by Nick Offerman. I had really enjoyed the book he wrote with his wife, The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, so when I saw this in my local little library I grabbed it immediately and was excited to read.
Alas, I didn’t find the magic again. The beginning is very ‘I was born, these are my parents, some anecdotes from childhood’ and it’s nice but not hugely interesting or funny (sorry!), and the asides where he’s kind of giving advice hit the wrong tone for me. At the very beginning there’s a screed about eating meat and how you want the good stuff and people should stop feeding fast food to their kids, and it just struck me as a massively privileged thing to say, and one of those easy finger pointing things that go on a lot. Not everyone has access to the good stuff. Whether it’s due to cost or time or education or whatever. They don’t need someone judging them for it. And sure, some might just be lazy, but I’d wager the vast majority are simply trying to get through the fucking day, especially in a country like America where from the middle class down you don’t have that much free time or income. Here they’re given a lecture about priorities and farmers’ markets, as if food deserts don’t exist. Oh but apparently if you’re in one of those you should just take it upon yourself to start producing it.
This was page 15 and it left a bad taste in my mouth throughout. I skipped a bunch more preaching (whether it was tongue in cheek or not) and went on to where he met Megan, but none of it had the heart or humour as the book written together. It will go back in the library for someone else to enjoy, hopefully more than I did.