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Take the Cannoli Stories From the New World
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Rating: 3.88/5 from 64 reviews Witty, Irreverent, Entertaining and InsightfulSigh. Sarah...I like Sarah Vowell. I discovered her first - at least among my small set - listening to Ira Glass's This American Life. I immediately called or sent email to everyone I knew, instructing them to listen to this woman with the oddly seductive little girl voice. So it pains me to have to say that this book is disappointing. I was outraged at the snippy review in the San Francisco Chronicle that criticized it for being "whiney" and "irritating". How inane. That *is* Sarah. Whiney. Irritating. She makes a career of it. So I ran out and bought a copy. Sadly, the book disappoints. The translation from spoken word to print doesn't make it. And it's not just the absence of the unique Vowell voice, it really is a structural problem. The snappy one-liners have been re-arranged to try to capture the timing, sadly failing all too often. Still, this voice (not only spoken) needs to be encouraged; it is smart and funny and just needs to age in the cask a bit longer. Buy the book, listen to the radio. Partly cloudy patriotRead everything Sarah Vowell writes but possibly read radio on after partly cloudy patriot and take the cannoli. | ||||||||||||||||||
The love of music she evidenced in her previous book Radio On is still here, with her faves like Jonathan Richman sprinkled throughout the book. Her irreverent spirit is best displayed in the title chapter, where she appropriates the phrase "Take The Cannoli" from the film The Godfather and truly makes it her own.
Vowell goes to Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp, goes deep into the heart of the Chelsea Hotel, and gets glammed up as a goth girl, all in the name of journalism. She truly shines in this collection as a young person who has not given up on America or on rock n' roll, but who right claims her place to critique and evaluate them on her own terms.