Get Me Through the Next Five Minutes

Parker offers some loose advice for living (give money to panhandlers whole-heartedly, because doing so means participating in 'the same divine economy that big-banged you into being'), but is at his best when poring over life's strange resonances...pays vivid homage to the beauty of the mundane.--Publishers Weekly (starred review) James Parker loves the English language like a farmer loves the soil, but then he's a lover of the world by nature. Here he counts his blessings, from Pablo Neruda to his dog's balls, and each of his entries is a small, beautifully shaped rapture. This book should be kept at bedside for all those rude awakenings and sodden sleeps.--Lucy Sante, author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York James Parker's book deserves an ode all its own--one that, like the odes it brings together, is apt, quirky, form-breaking, tradition-furthering, and celebratory all at once.--Paul Elie, author of Reinventing Bach Parker's dazzlingly erudite mind has found ways to appreciate everything from Proust to dog waste, and somehow make it funny. It's a book as edu-taining as it is inspirational, and his mastery of language ripples easy like Sunday morning. Parker is, in short, brilliant.--Cintra Wilson, author of Fear and Clothing: Unbuckling American Style Note to readers! This book has two parts. The first is the book itself, the one you read, as James Parker's prose grips on your receptors: here is a seriocomic essayist of the first order, enthusiastic and nervous, spiritual and salty, excited by the very idea of a wide frame of reference, totally on. The second part happens after you've finished, as life seems like a series of further odes waiting to happen, and more inviting because of it.--Ben Ratliff, author of Every Song Ever and Coltrane: The Story of a Sound