Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Raised by an alcoholic mother and a supportive but frequently absent father, Stephen "Steve-O" Glover was an imaginative boy with a serious need for attention. He fed this need by performing dangerous skateboarding stunts that he filmed and often showed to anyone willing to watch. In this honest and often graphic memoir, Glover details how this hobby turned into a career when he teamed up with the producers of the dangerous stunt show Jackass. The successful show provided Glover with the fame he craved, but also allowed him to indulge in drugs and alcohol with wild abandon. Glover tells how he often stayed awake for days, hopped-up on an ever-changing cocktail of substances. While Glover comes across as a sweet person and depicts his descent into the depths of drug abuse with candor, he displays surprisingly little remorse about his drug use. Though there is a note of redemption at the end-he's been able to maintain sobriety and has even become a vegan-the focus here is more on the stunts, wild stories, and drug abuse that got him there and that Jackass fans are expecting. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
Jackass TV star Steve-O is embarrassed by his actions-not stapling his scrotum to his leg or his other notorious stunts but those resulting from his drug addiction, which pushed away friends and family. He opens his memoir with a 1996 prison stay (the first of many), then takes us through his globe-trotting childhood as he and his sister cover for an alcoholic mother while their CEO father is away on business. Eventually the class clown ends up in clown college, but Steve-O's true passion is concocting and filming elaborate stunts. Skateboard tricks give way to self-immolation and other life-threatening feats, and Steve-O's videos grab the attention of the creators of Jackass. Yet as he realizes his professional ambitions, he succumbs to a flood of narcotics. Verdict Despite his rampant drug use, Steve-O offers a lucid and candid account of his life, concluding with a Dr. Drew-enabled institutionalization and his subsequent sobriety. With last year's successful Jackass 3D motion picture and a busy touring schedule, Steve-O is still in the spotlight, and this will be popular with his fans.-Terry Bosky, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., West Palm Beach, FL (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Jackassfans rejoice! Everybody else, shrug politely.Followers of Johnny Knoxville's sadistic comedy stunt crew are a loyal bunch. They've stuck with Johnny et al. through a TV series and three movies that, while often hysterical, can grow repetitive. So, would a memoir from one of the original Jackasses be a worthy endeavor? Like the show, sometimes. With an assist fromSpinmagazine scribe Peisner, Glover proves himself to be an engaging storyteller, ripping through his bumpy, trouble-filled childhood, his rise to semi-fame and his descent to drug and alcohol addiction with a train-without-brakes momentum. Friends, family and Jackass-ian characters are heard from throughout, giving the book the feel of a whacked-out oral history. This structure was a canny decision, as the differing perspectives and voices add much-needed diversityhad it been all Steve-o, all the time, it might have become redundant. Knoxville actually gets off several of the best linese.g., of Steve-o's need to perform all the time, he notes, "I'm an attention whore myself, but he's an attention whorehouse." Steve-o also gets points for truth-telling, describing his incessant bad behavior with unflinching honesty, and he ultimately comes across as a funny, lovable, occasionally embarrassing goofball cousin.Lowbrow, vulgar and sometimes hilariousJackassaficionados will eat this up.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
