The stories cover a variety of universal themes of childhood, parenting, dating experiences, traumas, dramas and life observations from childhood to adult, while the style ranges from a fluid short story narrative to a slapstick monologue with expletives highlighting the comedy or outrageousness of the story. Though the in-your-face humor of some of the material, such as the vasectomy (to include the illustrations and photos) is entertaining; it is not as successful as the subtler pieces that rely on the comedic value of the event and a deft set up or quick one-liner, rather than over-the-top descriptions and the use of CAPS and numerous expletives and exclamation marks to indicate the entertainment value. An example of this includes the episode in which the author and his mother are going to the video store. She asks him to leave a note for his dad. He promptly leaves a note stating: “Russell, I’m leaving you. I have Rodney with me. My lawyer will be in touch. Gerry.” The result, illustrated with a photo, proves to be comedic (albeit darkly comedic).
While most of the humor pokes fun at the author himself, as in the episode about being a fat child and eating chocolate laxative and promptly messing up his pants while on a bike ride with a friend, he does make some comparisons using unnecessarily zinging descriptions about celebrities: “I arrived home smelling like an unshowered Rosie O’Donnell after yoga class.”
The use of illustrations lends to the quick reading of the book, with stick figures cartoons, photos of privates, and manipulated photos offer numerous other outlets for comedy relief.
THINGS GO WRONG is a high-energy collection of often-funny stories about growing up, relationships, dating and sex and is recommended for those who are not conservative or squeamish about nuts.
Reviewed by Maya Fleischmann for IndieReader