Cool, Calm & Contentious
Essays
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3.5 • 72 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“This is so well written. [When a book like this] comes along, it’s, like, ‘Thank you!’ What a great way to spend an afternoon, an evening, reading these essays. . . . Absolutely great.”—Jon Stewart
“[Merrill] Markoe is easily as funny as David Sedaris. She’s capable of manic riffs and acerbic skewering. Still, her good nature shines through.”—The Washington Post
In this hilarious collection of candid essays, including two pieces new to this edition, New York Times bestselling author Merrill Markoe reveals much about her personal life—as well as the secret formula for comedy: Start out with a difficult mother, develop some classic teenage insecurities, add a few relationships with narcissistic men, toss in an unruly pack of selfish dogs, finish it off with the kind of crystalline perspective that only comes from years of navigating a roiling sea of unpleasant and unappeasable people, and—voilà—you’re funny! Cool, Calm & Contentious is honest, unapologetic, sometimes heartbreaking, but always shot through with Merrill Markoe’s biting, bracing wit.
“This has been a great year for funny women. . . . Let’s call Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling exhibits A and B. Both owe a debt to those who came before, including Merrill Markoe.”—The Boston Globe
“Markoe’s goal is to find the absurdity in everyday life. That, coupled with her sharp wit, makes her writing sublime.”—BookPage
“Laugh-out-loud humor.”—Tampa Bay Times
“Not only crazy-funny, but crazy-heartbreaking.”—The New York Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Though her last two novels were canine-centric, comedy writer Markoe (Nose Down, Eyes Up) primarily branches out to the human world in this witty, affecting collection of personal essays though her own pack of four dogs does make regular, usually brief, appearances throughout. In "Jimmy Explains His Wake-Up Technique," flat-coated retriever Jimmy, Markoe's surprisingly articulate canine, compares his kamikaze morning leap onto her bed as a "ballet." But her most intimate essays recall her early years, as a high school student first in Florida and then outside San Francisco, in "When I Was Jack Kerouac," and later as an art student trying her hardest to be rebellious in college at Berkeley in the '60s, such as in "Virginity Entrepreneurs." Humor from a helpful list for everyday life in "How to Spot an Asshole" to her own take on the popular TV show The Dog Whisperer in "The Dog Prattler" is interspersed with serious issues, from sexual assault to coping with a parent's death. Several of her best pieces come from her experiences as a reporter on assignment, particularly in "Saturday Night with Hieronymus Bosch," where she covered the Fetish Ball in L.A. (think latex and spanking), and "Roiling on a River," about an all-women's rafting trip (think healing circles). Markoe, the original head writer for Letterman, is acerbic without being corrosive, endearing yet never saccharine.
