God Hates Us All (udgave 2009)

So I picked this up at the library because I was intrigued by the title. And it looked like a quick read. But something was definitely odd. There's a red blurb on the cover that says "As featured on the hit Showtime series Californication" which I have never seen. It says it's written by Hank Moody and there's a paragraph on the back cover about Hank Moody which also says the book has been made into a movie - A Crazy Little Thing Called Love.

This all seemed weird to me. What movie is this? So I had to google this to find out that David Duchovny's character in Californication is Hank Moody. Hank writes this book in the series. It is turned into a movie in the series. Apparently, someone wrote this book for real life so we can all partake of the illusion.

Now how do I review a book like this? I can only review the story which is kind of interesting - an accidental drug dealer has a psycho girlfriend (really psycho) and he lives (for awhile, anyway) in the Chelsea Hotel in New York and he has - adventures? escapades? Meets lots of odd people, anyway. It was entertainment for the weekend. It's not a lifestyle I've lived but it was interesting reading about it. I think it basically made me glad I'm not addicted to drugs.

And I can't figure out the picture of the people on the back cover at the amusement park. Are these characters in the book? Which characters? Are they the stars of the "movie" from the series? Puzzling for those of us not initiated into this world. ( )

I will delve deeper into this book than a customer review on barnesandnoble.com, which summed the book up with, “NEAT.” [There should be a disclaimer at the point: I am a huge fan of the series Californication, and of the smart-mouthed David Duchovny, and the ravishing Natascha McElhone.] The book’s cover names Hank Moody as the author (the lead character in the series who plays a writer), but if one flips to the title page, you find these telltale words, “with Jonathan Grotenstein.” Authorship and the quality of the book’s writing both resemble an onion—circles within circles AND smelly. But don't you agree, smelly is much deeper than NEAT?
I think the book was released to coincide with the start of the third season, but that’s meaningless trivia now. Possibly my attraction to this book was like some diehard fan of a grunting, drooling, monosyllabic band’s bass player (nothing against bass players as a life form) releasing his literary treatise. I believe that when fictional TV characters actually write fiction, and it’s published, and released, we just might have slid into some level of hell.
Anyway, the book is centered on the character Hank, has many of the familiar stylizations of the series, but there is no there, there. Sure, I laughed some, but I gained nothing from the reading—and I greatly missed getting to see the stunning Natascha McElhone. I’m stopping now. If you are ever tempted to pick this book up from some bargain basement’s subbasement, you deserve to suffer, as I WARNED YOU. Just watch the reruns. ( )

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