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Title: More stories from Ames' wild life.
Review: Ames' third essay collection brings with it his normal hilarity (no one has misadventures quite as awkwardly funny as Ames), but also, too, pathos. An older and somewhat-wiser Ames seems full of regret -- over who he is, how he's lived, the decisions he's made, the kind of parent he can be to his kid -- and there's a real sense of melancholy undercutting all the laughs. But whether it's mentioning a bump on another author's head or getting lost after a boxing match or fencing against a hated rival as a teenager (my favorite piece from the book), Ames will have you laughing out loud. Ames, in his simple, easy language, seems to reveal all of his flaws so we can laugh at ourselves and accept all the horrible, embarrassing things we all experience and try to hide away.
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