Fetch Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort Of History Of The United States By Dave Barry Presented As Copy

bought this as a gift for my historyloving father, and could not put it down, So hilarious and ridiculous and laughoutloud entertaining, After my dad read it, I managed to permanently "borrow" it from him, The opening pages are so funny and wonderful, I used to read them to mythgrade students in a British Lit, course. What a blast.

From time to time, I still find myself telling people about this bookparticularly the fact that every date in the book is Octoberor whatever it isbecause dates are so hard to remember.
That leads to passages such as, "About eight or ninehundred years ago, on October, Vikings invaded, " I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard at a book, This book is ridiculous and extremely clever, Even the footnotes are funny! It was just what I was looking for! Not as funny as expected, It was DaveBarryhilarious! Loved it, Mocking our Founding Fathers as only he can, in the most absurd fashion possible, Many nonsequiturs that will give you mental whiplash, Laughed out loud frequently.

However, I did stop reading when it got to political events of my lifetime, Then it started to sound like modern attack ads against candidates, and I've had WAY too much of that, But that's a small part of the book, and it may reflect more on me than on Barry, Dear Dave,

What happened here then

Last time we met in Hobbs, NM, if I remember right you made me laugh so hard, I could hardly breathe.
So what's with the halfhearted attempt at an alternative history



I get that there are episodes that are left out of the US history books, but why did you need to write about the ones that were left out because they just aren't interesting.
Could you not have chosen to present the ones that have an air of controversy about them

What happened to Dave, the journalist who once braved a backlash of criticism when he supported the illegal importation of Canadian bathroom technology

I am writing this burying my head in my hands and hoping that we have not grown apart since that fateful day you signed my copy of your Greatest Hits.
Hoping that Greatest Hits would some day be followed up with a Greatest Hits, Vol,.

Yours,

BT


first posted on BookLikes: sitelink booklikes. com/post/ Its a little hard for me to rate this book it was loaned to me by a friend bc he knew Im an American History teacher and like jokes/puns.
The whole premise of this book is that its a farcical telling of American History up untilwhen it was writtensome of it didnt age well, fyi with tons of jokes and fake details meant to elicit laughs.
The more actual history you know, the funnier it is although I would also argue that knowing a lot of history can make you annoyed at some of the jokes or how some of the stories are toldand what was left out.


I did not particularly enjoy the first half of the book, A LOT was left out, and there were quite a few inaccuracies not the intentional ones for the sake of humor, but the base story aspect, I did chuckle some though, and it was still interesting to read,

After the Civil War, it got better, I enjoyed thes through thes, However, leaving out so much of thes was disappointing, the only things mentioned were Cold War stuff and Vietnamthere was nothing about thes Civil Rights movement or other movementsnot even the constantlyrepeated line thats supposed to be funny throughout the book, “women and minorities were also doing stuff during this time” this made me roll my eyes most times, as it felt less like a joke each time, esp when written by a white manbut he didnt even use that to explain why he left out women and minorities from pretty much every event from thes on he did mention flappers and Brown v Boardthats it.


Then, he got to thes, and you could tell that was the current/recent era bc it got way too far into the Reagan administration events other presidents throughout the book got a paragraph at bestReagan got a whole chapter.
As I mentioned, much of the last section doesnt age well, but thats not the authors fault, I feel that a book like this works better when told from the distance of time, I think that, if he wrote about thesearlys now, it would be a much different story with better jokes,

Anyway, most of the book is fairly enjoyable, I read the whole thing insittings over two days, You have to get used to the style its basically two jokes per sentence and it might be better if paced out more than what I did, Also, I prefer humorous history books that are more like the style of Sarah Vowell, where theres more actual history with jokes amidst it than just jokejokefakehistoryjokejoke like this.
However, I feel that if you enjoy this style, the book is still pretty good, which is why Im giving it thestar rating, If you read this and it challenges your memory of history, then Dave has caused you to think carefully about the history you were taught at school and the history we are creating.

But really! This book is a humourous look at America's history and how it has shaped us!
It is best read in small doses so you can digest it properly!
Pro tip: Don't use this book as reference material when you are studying for your citizenship exam! “What caused the American Revolution This is indeed a rhetorical question that for many years historians have begun chapters with.
As well they should. For the American Revolution is without a doubt the single most important historical event to occur in this nation except of course for Super Bowl III Jets, Colts. This historian won. ”

So goes the skewed sensibility, the muddied mind, the bent pen of one of America's funniest writers, Dave Barry, This time his subject is U, S. history, the way it's never been told before, Every single momentous event and crucial moment is covered, including, . .  

The Birthing Contractions of a Nation
Kicking Some British Butt
Barging Westward
The Forging of a Large, Wasteful Bureaucracy
Deep Economic Doodoo
The Fifties: Peace, Prosperity, Brain Death

.
. . and right up through the scintillating ReaganBush years, during which, Mr, Barry notes, America is steadfastly Napping Toward Glory,

If you love to laugh, if you love your country, if you are unaware that “the Sixth Amendment states that if you are accused of a crime, you have a right to a trial before a jury of people too stupid to get out of jury duty,” is the book you've been waiting for since.
Or at least since Super Bowl III,



“A dazzling performance, . . Barry is brilliant. ”

“Dave Barry turns his formidable wit to the subject of American history, with a result reminiscent of the Reduced Shakespeare Company: The better you know the original, the funnier it gets.
”
“I fear that Mr, Barry's dream of making millions of dollars through mass sales of his book to a captive audience of innocent schoolchildren will not be realized, and he will have to be content with making readers laugh a lot, as this one did.
” This is a hilarious read! Dave pokes fun at both parties equally, I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good laugh! Dude! This book BLEW MY MIND in sixth grade, I remember trying to eat dinner but not being able to put it down because I was cracking up so hard, There were jokes like:

"Something something about buffalo, or bison, among the planes, . .





Or, buffalo, "


Fuckin amazing, I only bring this up because, in an effort to make american history easier, he consolidated every date to Octoberth, Which is today!



And also because I just read sitelinkthe Wordy Shipmates, which is another kind of funny US history book, I do love Barry's take on history! Not his best work but still pretty funny,

sitelinkBlog sitelinkBookstagram

sitelink