- ISBN13: 9781416556206
- Condition: USED – ACCEPTABLE
- Notes:
As a child and teenager, Nathan Rabin viewed pop culture as a life-affirming form of escape. Today, pop culture is his life. For more than a decade, he’s served as head writer for A.V. Club, the entertainment section of The Onion. In The Big Rewind, Rabin shares his too-strange-for-fiction life story. From a psilocybin-addled trip to the Anne Frank House to having focus groups for his movie-review panel show opine that all the male critics seemed “gay” and that the … More >>
The Big Rewind: A Memoir Brought to You by Pop Culture
This is only the second time I’ve posted a review on Amazon after several years of purchases, and I’m doing it now because I can’t recall the last time I came across such an obnoxious voice in print. The Washington Post review above hits the nail on the head. The Big Rewind strains to be funny, but fails. That’s forgivable, but what isn’t is the author’s condescension towards everyone and everything in his life, whether it’s his alleged friends or lovers or the movies and music he claims to love. You kind of feel sorry for someone who seems so blissfully unaware of how nasty he is and how insignificant his pursuits are. I mean, honestly, talking about how Reservoir Dogs changed your life?
Rating: 1 / 5
ONION movie reviewer Nathan Rabin’s memoir starts off fine enough, hilariously and semi-heart-breakingly covering his early years, his father’s illness, his mother’s faults, and his stay in a mental institution then a group home, all while employing the descriptive language of the men of his time. (”Suckitude,” for example.) He cleverly ties chapter headings to song lyrics or movie lines, thereby his link “pop culture” and the book’s subtitle.
But then something happens: Rabin veers into long-winded essays about his experiences with a failed cable movie review show most readers won’t care about, and his unhealthy romances. His concluding chapter seems to undo much of what he wrote in the preceding chapters. In a few rushed and unconvincing paragraphs, he says he’s led a good life. And? What did he learn?
What I most wanted to read about is what led Rabin to be good at writing movie reviews–he has to be good to write for the ONION. Yes, his father plied him with lots of old musicals and he discovered musicians mostly on his own, and this influenced him, but how did he learn to write? How did he keep his audience? Where is he going with his career?
Note: Rabin overuses “doppelganger,” a fun word that should be used sparingly so as to not lessen its effectiveness.
Another Note: Knowing Rabin writes for the ONION, I keep wondering if most of his story was baloney. If so, good for him. His style reminded me a bit of Hunter S. Thompson’s. A compliment, I believe.
Rating: 3 / 5
Nathan Rabin actually spells out the weakness of The Big Rewind in the third chapter of the book where he talks about Girl, Interrupted:
“Unlike a certain jackass, she didn’t feel the need to water down the experience with cheap wisecracks.”
Each trauma is served with so many wisecracks smart asides that the story buckles under the strain. I have no doubt that Rabin is writing about painful experiences but the jokes water the drama down so much that I couldn’t help but notice that I’d read this before. Suicide and asylums and childhood trauma? Strip away the humor and the story is downright trite!
It’s only in the later sections, where the experiences that aren’t quite so universal, that Rabin tells an interesting story. I was fascinated to read about The Onion and his experiences in interviews and reviews and the Hollywood machine. This is where the book starts to shine and where the story is best served by Rabin’s humor. Unfortunately, it’s a slog to get there and I’m not sure it was worth it in the end.
Rating: 3 / 5
Legends have circulated for centuries about the magical powers that Nathan Rabin’s The Big Rewind holds. Some say that it can open a portal to Hell, while others claim that it can raise the dead, with still others believing that it can summon vampire spirits from another dimension. I was of course skeptical. But still, it’s not every day that one gets the opportunity to hold a mystical tome rumored to have magical powers in their hands. So I rushed out to my local bookseller to grab a copy of The Big Rewind. When I arrived home I immediately dashed into my bathroom (the only room in my humble apartment that has a mirror). I locked the door, lit a couple scented candles and turned off the light. I opened the book and began reading. I was captivated by Rabin’s razor-sharp wit and fascinating life’s story, all recounted through the prism of a deep appreciation for pop culture, both “high” and “low.” The book’s 300-plus pages flew by at lightning-speed and I admit I almost forgot the mysterious events that may have been following. As I intoned the final word of the book, I was overwhelmed by a sense I was no longer alone. I began to hear a strange, sinister whisper, accompanied by what I can only describe as a rhythmic chanting. My bathroom grew very cold and the scented candles were snuffed out. I dropped to my knees as the chanting grew louder – “Oh God!” I cried out, “Please save me from these demonic spirits I have summoned!” But it was to no avail. My body began to thrash about wildly, outside my conscious control. I started coughing up strange fluids that were unidentifiable in the dark. Then, my head banged up against one of the sharp corners in my bathroom, mercifully sending me into unconsciousness. When I awoke there was blood all over the walls and I had soiled myself. I’ll probably never know for sure what happened after I went out, but I know it must have been something unspeakably evil. So please, heed the rumors about The Big Rewind, even if they seem too unbelievable to be true. I wish that I had.
Rating: 5 / 5
I think The Big Rewind is a success in that Nathan Rabin was able to tell his story, including making me laugh and shocking me by his stint in a mental ward, being abandoned by his mother, his father’s illness, Nathan’s own seeming unemployability, and his overall rise above. Though Nathan might humbly disagree that he has risen above anything, it’s a miracle to me that he’s had such success considering the first two decades of his life.
The reason I say it is a success is that a lot of writers try to do this – to tell their life story and make the reader laugh. Most of these books come off as unfunny. Dull. Trite. Sad. The Big Rewind is not one of those books.
The book is organized into bite sized chapters, each starting with a song or movie or quote or other pop culture reference that gives context to the story. Most of it was familiar to me except for Grey Gardens. Now I know where the “worst thing that has ever happened to anyone in America,” quote comes from.
I must confess that while I have read The Onion, I had no idea who Nathan was when I ordered the book. After reading The Big Rewind: I’m a fan!
Rating: 4 / 5