A review by sonnyjim91
My Heart Is an Idiot: Essays by Davy Rothbart

4.0

Davy Rothbart's memoir/essay collection was really good! I'd recommend "Human Snowball", the essay that got me to buy the book, above all others, but almost all the essays are funny, thoughtful, and memorable. I wasn't a huge fan of the last essay in the book, which I had to reread to remember what it was even about, but otherwise I loved his stories. The structure of the book also deserves some mention - most essayists seem to structure their collections somewhat haphazardly, but Rothbart intersperses his longer pieces with a few short works, so you only have time to read 3 or 4 pages, those are your go-tos. These shorter pieces really shine, from the heartwarming (Rothbart spends time with an old hitchhiker whose life goal is to see the Grand Canyon) to the ridiculous (Rothbart wakes up on a Central Park bench in the middle of the day with nothing but his socks and a pizza box). The reviews on the back cover are a testament to his work - read My Heart Is an Idiot if you want to hear the stories of love and adventure of today's generation.