Bros & Hoes In Prose / Slava Pastukhov

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Humor/Satire

Approximate word count: 15-20,000 words

Availability
Kindle US: YES UK: YES Nook: YES Smashwords: YES Paper: NO
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Slava Pastukhov says he’s the second funniest person he knows (no word on who is the first). Pastukhov is a University student in Toronto, Ontario, and writes for the website Points in Case: The Fine Print of College Life under the pen name Yaro Shepherd. Much of the content of Bros & Hoes In Prose originated from this column. He also has a website, if you’re interested.

Description:

A collection of humorous essays. In the foreword, the author says they cover “all aspects of society that can be easily ridiculed.Most of these stories will make you smile, some may make you laugh and some of these stories will piss you off, but only if you fit into any of [the] cookie-cutter molds that have been presented to us by MTV.”

Appraisal:

One of the essays in Bros & Hoes in Prose starts, “welcome to the first and last installment of Relationship Advice from a Guy who’s Never Been in a Relationship.” (It turns out this isn’t really the last installment, since we get the “next installment” later in the book.) After reading the first several essays, I can’t say I’m surprised. This assumes Pastukhov is serious about never being in a relationship, which might be a faulty assumption. And therein lies my main problem with this book.

The best and edgiest comedy requires walking a tightrope. It often means holding a mirror up to a segment of society to show its flaws in a humorous way through exaggeration and caricature. My sense is that is what Pastukhov is attempting in the first several essays in a section called, The (un)Fairer Sex: How to get women. Also, how to get rid of them. The first essay in this section, 3 Women You Should Date, compares three different female types along with the pros and cons of dating each. The descriptions of the three types of females with the pros and cons were humorous and mostly managed the balancing act for me. However, I found the setup, starting with the “how to get them …” subtitle of this section to his describing the first essay as “product reviews for pussy,” too much. I felt it went over the line, from humorous to misogynistic. Even when the author moves from women to other subjects in later sections, this feeling kept popping up in other ways.

Although I found many places in Bros & Hoes in Prose that made me smile and some that made me laugh, as was promised in the description, I also found too many that pissed me off. I guess this means I need to watch MTV to find out which cookie-cutter mold applies to me. I do suspect a narrow demographic segment, maybe certain college age males, would love this book. One positive is it is free on Smashwords for those who want to see for themselves.

FYI:

Some adult content.

Format/Typo Issues:

A small number of typos.

Rating: *** Three stars