I Can't Believe I'm Still Single: Sane, Slightly Neurotic (but in a Sane Way) Filmmaker into Good Yoga, Bad Reality TV, Too Much Chocolate, and a Little ... Point Anyone Who'll Let Me Watch Football by Eric Schaeffer Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of I Can't Believe I'm Still Single: Sane, Slightly Neurotic (but in a Sane Way) Filmmaker into Good Yoga, Bad Reality TV, Too Much Chocolate, and a Little ... Point Anyone Who'll Let Me Watch Football
Book Review: A singleton's lament, or a whack job's rant?
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm a forty-something never-married man that bought this book solely because of the title. However, I didn't start reading it until after the recent kick-off episode of the companion TV series' second season on Showtime. I enjoyed watching the show's first go-around last year, so I figured it was time to burrow into "I Can't Believe I'm Still Single" for deeper insight into Eric Schaeffer's colorful psyche. After finishing his tale, I must say that the term "wild and crazy guy" doesn't begin to scratch the surface.
We first encounter the hapless author in his early forties as he meets April, a woman that his gut later tells him to flee from. Even so, he gamely tries to make the relationship work, and we follow his wordy efforts throughout the book as we get some back story. Mr. Schaeffer's early years are defined by addictions to food, sensuality, drugs, and alcohol. Romantic attachments crash and burn throughout his twenties and thirties as he sobers up, discovers yoga, drives a cab, churns out screenplays, and gets some acting gigs. He finally achieves a bit of show business success, but true love constantly eludes him.
Despite some slow spots and disturbing anecdotes, I enjoyed the book as a whole and found myself rooting for the author due to his TMI level of honesty and dogged attempts to pursue his dual dreams of filmmaking and finding a soul mate. However, he's hampered personally and professionally by some serious relational issues and personality foibles. The manic OCD energy he displays on his TV show arcs through the pages like a shock treatment session. His admitted battles with sensory excess and naked insecurities cripple all attempts at lasting intimacy, most tragically when he manages to meet a woman who might actually be right for him. Indeed, even a casual reader will be able to say with conviction, "I can believe that Eric Schaeffer is single." And that's even before making it to the XXX-rated dominatrix episode.
Mr. Schaeffer reminds me of an eccentric, fiercely extroverted woman I hung out with in Spain who would boldly talk to everyone in earshot, and after a couple of sentences people would either laugh or run away. One of those responses will probably typify your reaction to "I Can't Believe I'm Still Single." You'll either tolerate the author's weirdness (even the icky parts) and try to see the best in him, or toss the book aside in disgust and write him off as a sick loser who shouldn't be allowed to reproduce. I found myself more in the former category, despite having a hard time identifying with his overabundance of personality and lurid proclivities. I guess I can't help but root for the underdog.
In the end, all I can do is send a "Namaste" in his direction and wonder if there is any chance of marriage for him as he nears fifty. Stranger things have happened. Recently a friend of mine described his never-married quirky brother (who happens to be around Mr. Schaeffer's age) to a woman. Her diagnosis: "Well, he just needs a girl that is quirky like him and I'm sure there is one out there for him." Based on "I Can't Believe I'm Still Single," I have to say that her scenario is most likely the last, best hope for the author. That, I can relate to.
Book Review: So far, so good!
Summary: 5 Stars
Eric Schaeffer is a very sharp writer. There were mulitple reviews for this book that I didn't think did it any justice. I rarely read books for pleasure, but this one caught my eye after watching his documentary on Showtime. I'm already through the first 100 pages and I just received the book yesterday. If you like Eric's work, you will enjoy this book.Book Review: Carry On Up the Khyber
Summary: 2 Stars
This book fell off my shelf and onto my shoulder and I took it as a personal insult, so maybe this book deserves another star, but it's pretty vacant from beginning to end, and not in a good way. He, Eric, is in love with himself, sort of; he also hates himself and furthermore, he's ambivalent about all of his feelings. The book flutters between these three states of feeling, constantly refracted like one of those mirrored music boxes my mother kept on her bureau when I was a sexually confused child myself. With the prompt of a single pink fingernail my mother would set the music box to whirling around on its mechanical base, to the romantic strains of Beethoven's "Fur Elise," and I would be transported to another world, but if I was Eric Schaeffer, he would be thinking of some crass way to get my mother to sodomize him with an eight inch strap-on.
Some of his stories about indie filmmaking amuse, and one comes away from his book with great admiration for his mentor, John Sayles, but mostly one feels sorry for Sarah Jessica Parker, Molly Ringwald, and the dozens of lesser known women who have had to put up with his continual need for strap-on gratification. It can't be pleasant feeling this itch and knowing that you are going to be refused 99 times out of 100, but if I had wanted an encyclopedia on the subject, I would have bought one, but this is wretched plain and fancy, I don't know any other way to say it. Pity for he once had a promising career, then he must have annoyed the money people as well as his audiences.
Book Review: Great book! -(if you're not sexually repressed and have an intelligent sense of humor)
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book. I could not put it down! I wouldn't suggest it to just anyone, though. This book is not for you if you are a sexually repressed, uptight person. The humor in this book is crude at times, but always intelligent, in my opinion. I'm an instant fan and can't wait until Mr. Schaeffer writes his next book!Book Review: Is full disclosure another term for misogyny?
Summary: 4 Stars
I must say... it is remarkable to me the level of vitriol that Mr. Schaeffer seems to incur in response to his art. I have seen all of his films. From my perspective, they range from entertaining (Never Again, If Lucy Fell) to brilliant (Fall, Wirey Spindell)... though, this is neither here nor there. As with this book, his detractors seem incapable of reviewing the effort rather than the individual. The consistency of this reality from both lay people and (for shame) professional reviewers leaves me astounded. The worst thing I can think of to say about Eric Schaeffer is that he has no pause button between his brain and his mouth. Do we really experience this as such a problem... especially in an artist? Quite frankly, I find Eric to have a lot of respect for people in general with not a no malicious intent whatsoever(except perhaps in the way he sometimes treats himself)... again, neither here nor there. No one is asking you to date the man... or to hang out with him. If you think he is a lousy filmmaker... fine. If you think he is a poor author... lovely. But who cares what kind of person he is? Yes, this particular book, and some of his films are inspired by his own experiences... though what artist is that NOT true about? The man takes more shots at himself than any individual could ever dream of doing. Within that fact is a deep humility and a fair amount of self-awareness... if only the rest of Hollywood could manifest the same. Okay, now that I have become part of the problem... the book is wry, astute, sharp and insightful. If you are interested in reading the well written diatribes of someone who has no fear of saying what the rest of us only dare to think, do yourself a favor. On the other hand, if you find yourself intimidated by the journey of truth... run.