Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.Įveryone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). Lowbrow, vulgar and sometimes hilarious-Jackass aficionados will eat this up. Knoxville actually gets off several of the best lines-e.g., of Steve-o's need to perform all the time, he notes, “I'm an attention whore myself, but he’s an attention whorehouse.” Steve-o also gets points for truth-telling, describing his incessant bad behavior with unflinching honesty, and he ultimately comes across as a funny, lovable, occasionally embarrassing goofball cousin. This structure was a canny decision, as the differing perspectives and voices add much-needed diversity-had it been all Steve-o, all the time, it might have become redundant. Friends, family and Jackass-ian characters are heard from throughout, giving the book the feel of a whacked-out oral history. With an assist from Spin magazine scribe Peisner, Glover proves himself to be an engaging storyteller, ripping through his bumpy, trouble-filled childhood, his rise to semi-fame and his descent to drug and alcohol addiction with a train-without-brakes momentum. So, would a memoir from one of the original Jackasses be a worthy endeavor? Like the show, sometimes. through a TV series and three movies that, while often hysterical, can grow repetitive. Jackass fans rejoice! Everybody else, shrug politely.įollowers of Johnny Knoxville's sadistic comedy stunt crew are a loyal bunch.
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