Attack of the Theater People--Marc Acito (Book Review)

Having enjoyed Marc Acito's first book,How I Paid for College, I'd been meaning to read Attack of the Theater People since it came out in April. I finally picked it up a few weeks ago and laughed my way from cover to cover, then I started thinking about reviewing it.

And came up with: who am I kidding? Even with the best of intentions I can't possibly write an objective review of this book.

Marc leads a writing class I'm taking this fall. If I had criticisms, would I have to heart to write them for all the world to see one day, and the next day go discuss plotting techniques with the man? (I might, actually. Hey, if he can dish it out, right? Sheesh, it's not like he can fail me in novel plotting.)

But what if I loved the book? Could you, dear reader, come away from a glowing review of my teacher's work feeling I was anything but a total suck-up? (In the same vein, I'll refrain from carrying on about how great the class is. But if you're a writer and you have the opportunity to take a workshop with Marc Acito? I'd suggest going for it.)

Trashionista gave it 5 stars, Pop Culture Book Review loved it. If you've reviewed it, let me know and I'll add your link. If you haven't read it, why not read Chapter 1 and see for yourself? And while you're over there, check out Marc's blog, a chronicle of 365 days of doing something he's never done thing every day, from hot air balloon rides to race car driving to wearing clothing made of paper bags. I suspect that life with Marc is the same combination of wise and goofy as his books are.

Soundtrack: Marc highly recommends that fiction writers choose music that brings out the atmosphere of their novel and listen to it while writing. For Attack of the Theater People it was Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits. If he had to pick one song, it'd be Hungry Heart.