Sorry about crappy sample image, but this book is small (in size, not the number of pages) and dense, so I didn’t feel like cracking the spine for what probably still wouldn’t be a good sample image. Top Shelf has a few decent sample images if you’d like to see it a bit clearer. So what’s this all about? It’s the story of Mats from early 2003, when he was first starting college to just about 2000. He has a steady job for the vast majority of this hefty 479 page book, so that’s out as a source of conflict. Luckily he has a hell of a time with the ladies, and that subject is mined beautifully. It helps when the author has no qualms about being honest even when it makes him look bad, and Mats clearly has no such qualms. He starts off with a girl who already has a boyfriend (not that that stops him, but oh, the guilt), falls for another girl who says that she’s incapable of falling in love, gets with her friend when that doesn’t work out, and generally looks downright pathetic in the process. Well, he looks pathetic in hindsight, and how many of us can honestly say that some part of our romantic past doesn’t look pathetic these days? That’s what I thought. Anyway, he eventually falls deeply in love with a girl he meets at a music festival before the age difference and the physical distance between their homes takes a toll. Yes, that’s as far as I’m willing to go with the details. I will say that the cover gives the impression of a blissfully happy couple and, while there were a few of those moments in this book, overall it doesn’t paint that picture a bit. Other highlights include his honest appraisal of whether or not he was really exactly like his nemesis, the wannabes and fakes of all walks of life, whether or not he WAS one of those wannabes, lots of drinking, and getting trapped in a relationship with a suicidal girl. It’s unflinchingly honest (either that or he has a fetish of making himself look bad) and good luck putting this beast down once you get started. Even if you’ve managed to become jaded and sick of the autobio genre, you’ll still get plenty out of this pile of brilliance. #14.95
