I should probably give this book a 2 star rating. I skimmed a lot of the essays and was pretty glad to be done with it, but it's hard to do so because I get the feeling I would really like talking to Kluwe at a gathering. He seems thoughtful, well educated, funny, compassionate and we have similar values both politically and religiously. I really appreciate his commitment to marriage equality and his general goal of being a voice for the under represented.



And I wouldn't know any of this if it we

I should probably give this book a 2 star rating. I skimmed a lot of the essays and was pretty glad to be done with it, but it's hard to do so because I get the feeling I would really like talking to Kluwe at a gathering. He seems thoughtful, well educated, funny, compassionate and we have similar values both politically and religiously. I really appreciate his commitment to marriage equality and his general goal of being a voice for the under represented.



And I wouldn't know any of this if it weren't for his book. I don't watch sports, and I had never read his open letter to Emmett C. Burns, so I really had no idea who Kluwe was until I read the Big Idea post about this book on John Scalzi's blog. This also meant I really didn't know what to expect when I bought the book.



This is a collection of original and reprinted essays and poems, on a range of topics. Because there are quite a few reprints, the book has a tendency to feel repetitive. I'm am a strong supporter of marriage equality but there are only so many times I want to read another explanation of why Kluwe is also a supporter. It's an important and worthwhile topic but I'm already sold on it. Reading another essay, written by the same person, hasn't done anything to expand my understanding of the topic.



The book also tends towards the self congratulatory. I think Kluwe is aware of this. He admits, repeatedly, that he's competitive and intends to be the best at what he does, and in one essay he explains that he doesn't have heroes, not because of some philosophical aversion to placing people on pedestals, but because he wants to be the hero. I don't think he walks around talking about himself in such glowing terms all the time, I just think that left to talk about anything, without any real directions, he's chosen to talk about what a great person he is and I maxed out on my threshold for that, pretty early on in the book.



There were also a few points in the book when I felt Kluwe said some things he'll probably look back on as ill advised. I would gladly have a lively debate with him about his portrayal of what atheism, (he's agnostic). He offers up a tired, well refuted argument, but it mostly made me chuckle. What did bother me was his essay that painted individuals in abusive relationships or those in dead-end jobs as responsible for their own unhappiness. If they weren't "lying to themselves" they'd be in a better place, he argues. As a wealthy, white, able bodied man raised in a loving home, who got a great education, and is doing something he loves for loads of money and surrounded by supported loving people, it may seem impossible for him to imagine that other people might be in a situation they cannot easily leave, but his reality is not everyone's reality.



When he argues that people who get mortgages are financially irresponsible, akin to chronic gamblers, one has to wonder if he's ever struggled to even pay bills, to say nothing of saving up enough money to pay for a home with cash while also paying rent. Sure, in a perfect world, we'd pay for everything with cash and yes, people make bad financial choices sometimes, but I'm not sure someone making his salary right out of college, is in a position to explain what it's like to make ends meet on a modest salary. Rich people have the luxury of being able to make better financial choices than those who live paycheck to paycheck.



None of this feels malicious but it does feel sophomoric and I imagine that in a decade, he'll look back on the things he once proclaimed with certainty, and realize he might not have understood as much of the world as he thought he did.



