This American Life: Lies Sissies & Fiascoes

For example, "Shooting Dad" by Sarah Vowell is a terrific essay about Sarah's relationship with her gunsmith father. Well-written, funny, sharp and poignant. But compare that with the dreck that follows: "Get Over It!" by host Ira Glass, where he mopes at length about his recent encounter with a former girlfriend. Sarah Vowell once stated in an interview that radio stories are "edited down within an inch of their lives", but Ira's segment -- full of his own deep sighs, his laughter at his own comments, his voice often choked with emotion -- seems to have undergone no editing whatsover. It reminded me of the scene in "Broadcast News" where William Hurt's TV reporter character inserts a shot of himself shedding a tear during an interview. It reeks of "look at me, aren't I so 'real'"; that is, until you realize that it was created with multiple takes.

As for the rest, I enjoyed Sedaris's "Drama Bug" and Bindler's "Hands on a Hard Body", but many of the others struck me as mediocre for one reason or another.


This American Life from PRI is fabulous!   December 16, 2003
4 out of 9 found this review helpful

What a fantastic "best of" This American Life CD. It was the first and one of the best. I have been a fan of the program distributed to public radio by PRI, Public Radio International (NOT NPR) for years. This American Life describes such wonderful stories in such a unique way, and creates "driveway moments" for me! It truly is some of the best public radio has to offer and its story telling is up there with ANY medium.


Mostly good stories from NPR's radio show   January 29, 2003
E A Glaser (Delft, The Netherlands)
18 out of 21 found this review helpful

As a fan of NPR who no longer lives in the US, I jumped all over the chance to buy a best-of compilation of "This American Life". The 2-CD set is split into funny stories on the first disc and serious ones on the second, although I thought both "Hands on a Hard Body" and "Christmas Freud" had some nice funny bits. Also on the second disc are the very chilling pieces "Test" and "Apology Line".

The only segments I did not like in this set, in fact, are the first one on each disc; these happen to be the ones that feature the show's host Ira Glass. I found "Peter Pan" (a piece about a small town drama production that goes awry) to be patronizing and overly long; the remainder of the first disc was very funny. Opening the second disc is "Get Over It!", a segment in which Mr. Glass explores an awkward weekend with an ex-girlfriend for whom he still has feelings. Although it has a good ending, I thought that he was just begging for sympathy with this story, and I felt manipulated. It's admirable in a way that Mr. Glass is willing to showcase his private pain for our entertainment, but not if he's going to make it a pity party.

But otherwise I think the compilation is great and I thank him for creating and hosting the show. I recommend it for anybody who's been a fan of the show (and most of you will probably enjoy Mr. Glass's pieces more than I did).


disappointed baby boomer   November 21, 2002
4 out of 40 found this review helpful

perhaps I'm too old to appreciate these stories. I was too impatient to hear several of them out to the end, though all I was doing was driving to a destination, without alot on my mind. A few were good, but not good enough to immortalize on a CD.