The Best Book I’ve Ever Read

Frankly, I have read nearly all of the great works of literature, but no book has ever impressed me as deeply or directly     1     Joel Stein’s Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masendinity.

Haven’t we all, on some level, been Jewish boys in New Jersey in     2     1970s with only female friends, an Easy-Bake oven and a strong preference for show tunes? Haven’t we all had a panic attack     3     learning we’re going to have a son, since that means we’re going to have to figure out how to throw footballs, watch other people throw footballs and decide     4     to be happy or sad about the results of football throwing? Haven’t we all then tried to correct our lack of maleness by becoming a man, fighting fires with firefighters,     5     (drive) a Lamborghini and doing three days of Army training camp? I know I have.

The only parts I didn’t fully enjoy were     6     in which the author suffered horribly. After just three hours of training camp, he fainted weakly into the arms of a soldier. The film rights to Man Made have already been sold to Fox, and I hope it gets     7     (turn) into a movie with George Clooney playing the Stein role, since they remind me so much of each other.

    8     this is only Stein’s first book, I would already consider him as someone like David Sedaris, Dave Barry, James Thurber, Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln. I     9     (recommend) Man Made not just to all my friends and family but also to strangers on Twitter over and over again. My one fear is     10     after this great achievement, Stein will lose his ability to be a cruel critic of our shallow times.