Review: Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Schlitzie the Pinhead

Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Schlitzie the Pinhead by Bill Griffith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ultimately a sad story told in a sad manner. Bill Griffith documents the life of Schlitzie, a disabled/mentally challenged man who was in effect sold to the circus by his parents to be a sideshow exhibit. He worked in circuses for decades, and even appeared in films. He became somewhat famous. Griffith describes the many circus performers and operators that worked with Schlitzie over the years, as well as the few forays into life outside of the circus, including a stay at a mental hospital. Schlitzie was somewhat successful in life given his extreme limitations, living to what appeared to be his fullest while also having bad times and bad things happen along the way. What can anyone ask for? His story comes across as sad but enlightening. You get to see a very different perspective on life.

Griffith is not trying to exploit Schiltzie, like the circus folks and the creators of the movie Freaks which included Schlitzie. Griiffith walks a fine line here, describing how Schlitzie is exploited by these people, but also presenting the alternative world where Schlitzie is not exploited for the entertainment of others, but becomes a ward of the state. In fact, this happens to him for a while later in life, and the experience is chilling. Again, Schlitzie appeared to live a good life given his situation and the times.

Schlitzie’s life is about 70% of the contents of this graphic non-fiction book. About 20% delves into the lives and backgrounds of a few other people in Schlitzie’s life - other sideshow entertainers and circus operators. I thought these vignettes added to the story, helping in my understanding of the circus environment during this time period, and illustrating that this was not considered “just a business” by many of those in the industry. And there were certainly strong personalities involved.

The remaining 10% or so was the story of how Bill Griffith heard of Schlitzie and created his cartoon character Zippy the Pinhead based on this sideshow circus entertainer. This part was interesting for me as a Zippy comics fan. I had always wondered about the way Zippy spoke, and it came in part from Schlitzie, as did his looks and even his outfit (Zippy’s clown costume was dress like, based on Schlitzie often being put in a dress and described as a woman). Griffith includes early drawings of Zippy that are identical to his drawings here of Schlitzie, including the 5 o’clock shadow that doesn’t appear in later Zippy comics. While interesting and explaining the basis for Zippy, this also feels a little sad, like Griffith is admitting to profiting on an unfortunate other, and is documenting the original because, well, no one else really is. He’s not asking forgiveness, he’s just telling the story. In the end, I believe that’s all we can hope as a person – that someone remembers our story and finds it worthwhile enough to tell. With Griffith’s help in this substantial book, Schlitzie fares better than most of us.


View all my reviews

Review: Factfulness

Factfulness by Hans Rosling
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was expecting to really like this book, given that I'm interested in the topic of how things are better than we think, and given Rosling's interesting TED Talk videos. But I have mixed feelings here. Rosling does present his data on statistics that most people think incorrectly about in an interesting manner. Rosling begins the book by asking an audience about statistics, things like the poverty rate, education of females throughout the world, and the like. Their responses show a worse than random belief in a worst case view of our world. We are all apparently pessimists. Rosling then goes on to debunk these individual statistics, all the while deriding how people think and get these things wrong, while also telling many, many anecdotes about his life. While I found this somewhat interesting, it also felt very similar to three other books I've read recently. The first was another by Rosling, which was mostly autobiographical. In his "How I Learned to Understand the World", he tells many of the same stories that appear here, including some stories of his being a doctor in Africa as well as the story of how his son helped him learn how to present statistics in a way meaningful to more people. These are generally good stories that lay out why Rosling thinks the way he does, but repetitive to (and generally better told in) his other book.

The other two books I read recently that impacting my thinking on this one were Johan Norberg's "Progress" and Matt Ridley's "The Rational Optimist". Both of these books cover similar ground as Norberg, but go beyond in ways that add value to the argument. Ridley covers pessimism over history as well as media's influence in deepening pessimism. I believe Norberg covered more topics.

What I found most interesting, given I've been reading on world optimism a lot recently, is the backstory of how Rosling and son design a way to present the stories. This is even more interesting if you watch some of Rosling's TED Talk videos. His lesson on storytelling for impact is my key takeaway here.

View all my reviews

Review: Ready Player Two

Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I loved the first book by Cline, and was hoping for more of the same. I read this without looking at the reviews, but I finally did peek right before writing this review. I peeked because I was greatly underwhelmed with this story. I think it was because so much of it didn't seem to make sense, and didn't seem to make the most of 80s pop culture in the quests Wade and friends had to deal with. I identified with all the trivial pursuits in the first book, but here either the actions were just odd or the topics were off. I was disappointed with the book, but I presumed it was my own take. I was surprised that there are so many not-so-great reviews, and I was even more surprised that I agree with them. Perhaps this idea only works once.

View all my reviews

Review: The Good Life Lab: Radical Experiments in Hands-On Living

The Good Life Lab: Radical Experiments in Hands-On Living by Wendy Tremayne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

You figure with the words lab, experiments, and hands-on in the title, you’d be getting a instructional book. But here, that’s not what you’re getting. More than half of this book is the author’s story about why she and her husband moved from the big city to desert New Mexico to live life off of the waste stream of society and nature. I liked how the author described the issues and the thinking she went through to make this decision. I don’t foresee myself ever making this same kind of decision, but I find it interesting when people think through issues and consider or ignore some aspects. You can understand what they value through that journey. When they get to New Mexico the author describes the many ways they made their way through life, making a living, foraging for food and supplies, and the like. The last section of the book, less than half, provides some capsule comments on the specific things they tried, from food foraging in the desert to using used cooking oil to power a car. There wasn’t enough detail here to guide the reader to experiment, so I found the title of the book misleading. However, this was of some interest in the variety of topics covered. I used to read “Whole Earth Review” and “The Whole Earth Digest”, and this is the kind of post-hippy maker-forward content in variety, if not in depth, that I enjoy.

The three things I found most interesting in the book:
- The author starts with attending Burning Man, and from there starting an event to re-use modified clothing that becomes somewhat popular. Certainly interesting from an entrepreneurial perspective, and you get that builder mentality throughout the book.
- People that use a restaurant’s used frying oil to power their cars are affectionately known as “greasers”.
- The author’s husband creates and sells electronic devices he designs and makes on the side. While a lot of what this couple does seems like subsistence work, this was the best example of how they could get ahead in the moneyed economy as well. Quite interesting ideas for products.


View all my reviews

Review: Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals

Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals by Rachel Hollis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

57 year old male here. Why did I read this? I thought it might interest my college-age daughters and wanted to get an idea of what is popular motivational book would be for that age. What did I find? I found a typical book about planning and meeting goals. I found the author to be a very strong voice, one that tends to be uplifting. But also, a voice that has a personality that could rub you the wrong way at times. Do you have a friend that is always talking, and it’s become such a habit for the friend that at times the talk wanders into the bizarre or non-sensical, and you think, “Oh, he ran out of things to say and had to make something up.” That’s kind of what happens here on occasion. Hollis starts crabbing about how hard it is being rich. Later she’s bragging about her boob job. This is all mixed in with a mild goal setting process that she describes. It kinda works, in a manner. Let me put it this way. Say there is a “popular” group in school and you are not in it. And one of the popular girls offers to teach a class on goals. If you go, you know she’ll try hard to relate her life to yours, but she’ll also slip up and say things that show she thinks much higher of herself than any of her audience. But you think you’ll get something out of the class. Do you go? That’s a way to describe how I felt about this book and how I’ll describe it to my daughters. One daughter stared reading this before I did, but I suspect she won't finish it. I think she'll get the basic ideas and the voice quickly, and opt for her self-help in shorter blog entries she finds through her friends. I could understand how some people could really enjoy this.

View all my reviews

Review: Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I listened to this audiobook in part to check off the longest audio in my TBR list on Hoopla. At 35 hours, I found that I was kept entertained by the author, so in that respect, this was a job well done. How did he do that? For one thing, he doesn’t answer the toughest question of whether Rockefeller was a bad guy or a good guy. He provides stories to illustrate both, but on the whole I’d say Rockefeller comes across quite well. A second way that the author made this more engaging for the length is that some of the story delved into the biography of others. I’d say that the story of Rockefeller’s father, his son, and Ida Tarbell could have been cleaved off as separate books had the author wanted a collection. The father was a character. Ida Tarbell was a trailblazer. And Rockefeller Jr’s story shows the moral growth of an executive through adversity. All very distinct stories. The author weaved these together as needed to make the overall book more appealing. Another way that the book remained interesting was that the author did not focus on Rockefeller’s day-to-day business dealings. I was expecting more about the day-to-day office intrigue, the politics, the strategy. I’d consider this less of a “business biography” and more of a “personal biography” of a business executive as written. Again, to make the book more readable, I believe this was the correct strategy.

Favorite anecdote: Rockefeller would carry pockets full of dimes and nickels. He’d give dimes to adults and nickels to kids that he met during his day, instead of autographing things. When he gave these out, he’d also provide a little sermon on the value of work and investing. Imagine Mark Zuckerberg doing this nowadays and how that would go over.

Now that I’ve finished the longest audiobook on my Hoopla list, it’s time to start thinking about listening to the new longest book. Appropriately, it’s a Charles Dickens story about businesspeople. I’m expecting some similarities.


View all my reviews

Review: Accidentally Like a Martyr: The Tortured Art of Warren Zevon

Accidentally Like a Martyr: The Tortured Art of Warren Zevon by James Campion
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve read a few books and articles on Warren Zevon. They all seem different, focusing on different things. This one was quite focused on the music, especially the lyrics. You still get a great feel for the person, with many friends, relatives, and musicians interviewed and plenty of anecdotes. But this one comes not from the mind of a biographer, but from the mind of a rock critic. I grew up reading Rolling Stone and the like, and found that some of the music writers really focused on what I’ve come to call the hyperbolic writing style. These writers have never met a metaphor they couldn’t stretch into extremes. You picture them breathlessly typing with maniacal smiles as they try to top their last pithy yet over-the-top phrase describing some aspect of a song. What I actually picture is Mel Gibson in “Conspiracy Theory” or John Nash in “A Beautiful Mind”, with bulletin boards full of snippets of info connected with yarn. The best rock writers share this belief in hyperbolic connectedness with conspiracy theorists.

Ends up I enjoy an occasional trip through a conspiracy theory, and likewise through a rock critic talking about a whole lot of songs. So many things can mean so many things, sometimes it’s just fun to go along with the author. That’s what I did here. Fun ride. And overall, I found I liked this better than those other Zevon books and stories because it’s aimed at the fan who wants to get a glimpse behind the scenes of the songs and the person. I enjoyed the detailed review of lyrics throughout, and I even liked the many references to authors and books that influenced Zevon. This is a real fan’s book. I don’t think people that aren’t already fans of Zevon would appreciate this as much.


View all my reviews