As a longtime wrestling fan, I was glad to finally pick up my copy of Have a Nice Day! this week, and read it in a day and a half. Then, out of curiosity, I checked the Epinions reviews, and whoa - five stars after five stars after five stars ...
Sorry to burst everybody's bubble (especially Mick's) but given that at least a solid quarter of these reviews included a sentence like "I don't read a lot but ...", I have to conclude that an objective review from a frequent reader is still in demand. I read a lot, so making my choice to review the book was easy.
Mick (it seems, even for me, that the first rule of being a wrestling fan is "never refer to Mick Foley by his last name") is a natural storyteller. Is that the same as being an author? Not exactly. While it's frequently the same, Mick's storytelling proclivities grow out of control at a few points in the book -- he gets far too breezy and chummy. This is not surprising, given Mick's enormous reputation for being a sweetheart, but very occasionally it got irritating. Then again, it does make the book easier for an infrequent reader. Indeed, the book reads like one long personal letter, especially given Mick's informal tones and choice of stories.
Another quibble - and it's only a quibble - is that this is less of a biography and more of a wrestling exposé. I'm not complaining, as the latter is indeed good in its own right, but given that Mick skims over his wedding ludicrously quickly should indicate where his tale-telling preference lay. Perhaps this was out of desire to keep his family life more or less his own - which I certainly would respect - but it still feels like an omission and the book suffers a bit for it.
Another thing to consider is that a lot of references in this book are very obscure. Mick tries his best to explain most of them and largely succeeds, but he misses a few - I doubt that even most active wrestling fans would recognize who Kenta Kobashi is or why he's important. (I do, but I'm a longtime serious wrestling fan.)
One last point is that a few passages - notably his discussion of the fallout after the Survivor Series 1997 fiasco (a situation the WWF has spent much effort spin-doctoring for the past two years) seem slightly - how is the best way to put this - edited. After two pages of talking about his anger with the company, he sums up his decision to return in one paragraph that's virtually identical to certain speeches Vince McMahon has made in his time.
Other than these minor quibbles, though, Mick's book is a treasure. It's funny, intelligent, slightly skewed (the bit where Mick says he thinks two men in a bloody violent fight is more suitable for kids than sexual situations will no doubt raise a few eyebrows), warm, often subtle - this last contrasting well with the story of the time Mick and Steve Austin filled Dallas Page's motel bed with fresh chocolate chip cookies, which is quite simply the funniest passage in the entire book and one of the funniest I've read this year. I'd not hesitate to recommend it to anybody, regardless of what they think of pro wrestling.
Now, if only some actual book critics would review it...
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