You know how some people are kind of magnetized or something, and they always set off store alarms? Nate's the same way, only with comedy. Interesting and funny things follow him around like adorable baby ducks, and Nate's more than willing to put them in a row in the form of "Snippets and the Impure Tour".

You might know Nate from his stellar work on Points in Case. Or, from having your ear bent in a seedy bar at 2 a.m. by some degenerate with point to make. (Either is likely; Nate meets a lot of people in bars) The point is, you're getting the same Nate, in a format you can carry with you, and even read on the toilet.

Someone once said that comedy is the hardest genre to write, but Nate makes it look easy. He bulldozes his way across the page, astounding you with his conversational wit, and challenging you to believe that anyone so erudite can have lived such a degenerate life. I highly encourage you to join him as he embarks on a Wonderland-like tour of sex, booze, drugs and debauchery. Pick up his book today!

I've know Nathan or Nick, or whoever he is for some years now, since we were wee tykes really, riding our skateboards and listening to the Ramones, so I know his particular brand of refined delinquencies quite well and of course I have been subjected to a good bit of his gibberish over the years both in print and otherwise. Even with that perspective it seems to me he has managed to focus that poetic energy here to create something truly original that does what great writing or great art should do. That is: communicate some truth about the human condition in an accessible manner that does not bore and frustrate readers into a desperate fit of suicidal depression. I'm not saying that this is a great work of writing, it is impossible for me to be objective enough to say for sure, you see I was a visitor many nights to the basement door described in the proceeding pages as both a customer and a friend. I recognize the people concealed behind the nicknames and I know the story to be true. The details of the inflow of LSD into the Midwest in the mid nineties and it's impact on the generation that rode the edge of that unlikely wave into nowhere in particular is an overdue tale. In fact it is precisely that generation that is now slowly taking the reigns just as they warned us that we would back then, and it is still the most discounted and perhaps scarcely understood generation in American History. The bored generation, true rebels without a cause, acid eaters without a revolution. The overwhelming triumph of political correctness, cynical publishing, drug hysteria, and the ever increasing power of the establishment and it's overreaching arm of enforcement kept the stories of my generation, yours, your friends, neighbors, and co-workers almost entirely untold but what Nathan, or Nick or whoever he is has accomplished through the unusual arrangement of the details of so called crimes that other decent folks are spending the rest of their lives in jail for combined with the everyday idle barroom chatter of the lost generation and the sordid details of his sex life is to burnish down the requisite bullshit veneer of twenty-first century literature enough to reveal a glimmer of truth, and for that matter beauty embedded in the mundane and to shine a light on the bizarre world that has unfolded before those of us that went stumbling around looking for it. Not your typical coming of age story ready for evening television but rather an unsterilized recounting of one human story of coming of age in a capitalist paradox unfit for Oprah, and interspersed with the dilemma of mediocrity of another generation turned to booze and despair. But Oprah got what she deserved when she brought that punk James Frey up on stage but if she wants the true story let her read this book.


You know something like that.
Peace,
Shane

If I had kids Nathan DeGraaf’s age, I wouldn’t let them hang out with him. He’s a degenerate whose hedonism seems to consume him and all those around him. I’m sure anyone around him is destined for all sorts of misadventures, dealings with characters of questionable repute, and haberdashery.



Thankfully, though, we can now all let our hypothetical children (mine are named Conan (like the barbarian, not the talk show host) and Al Bundy) get their Nate fix from a safe distae The Snippets and the Impure Tour does a couple of things, and it does them damn well. First, as you may have guessed from the title, are snippets. For every time you’re out with your friends and someone says something hilarious that’s forgotten minutes later, Nate is lurking in some bushes (or on a barstool) somewhere, writing down his interactions. It’s like watching a replay of your favorite football game with everything cut out except for interceptions, touchdown passes, and the quarterback drunkenly flirting with his cheerleaders. Point is, if you’ve got 15 seconds and need some funny in your life, flip open this book and find yourself a snippet.



As for the whole Impure Tour bit, it’s Nate getting drunk and high and wandering around Grateful Dead shows. If you’re a member of the key 18-25 demographic, you’ve probably already bought the book based on that sentence, but if not, read on. This is a tale with some of the most interesting characters you’re likely to encounter, a plot that stops for no one (except for the chapters of snippets in the middle), and a writer who clearly has no lack of passion, skill, and stories that make every red blooded American male jealous. Also, all of his friends have really cool nicknames. And there’s cool drug lingo. Seriously, just buy the book. If you don’t like it, I won’t refund your money, but I’ll feel really bad.


Alex Willen