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Reviewed by Laura Roberts for Readers' Favorite
Barry Damsky's collection of previously published columns, The Peas Were Cold: The Columns of Barry Damsky, strikes upon a variety of subjects ranging from his youth in upstate New York to his days working in a talent agency in California to dogs and cats he has known -- among other flotsam. Though the largest section of the book is devoted to what he terms "The Boonville Years," many of Damsky's most entertaining columns are found in the "Los Angeles" section, detailing his various brushes with celebrity, as well as some of his own attempts to lasso fame as a singer.
Damsky is clearly at his best when telling humorous stories, such as the time he crashed the family car through the garage door, his unusual time as a contestant on The Dating Game, or in any of his fumbling attempts to make small talk with random celebrities, so it's odd that the book opens on such a dark note -- with an homage to Linda Eastman McCartney upon first learning of her death. Equally oddly, having read the titular column in which the book's title appears ("Say Something -- Anything!"), I'm still not entirely sure what it has to do with the rest of the book's contents or why it was chosen as the title of the collection, since it doesn't quite seem representative of Damsky's upbeat nature and "average Joe" antics. Nevertheless, it's interesting to see Damsky's style as a writer change and grow as the years go by, from his first published piece in 1998 to his most recent pieces published in 2012. The Peas Were Cold may not always make sense to those of us outside of Damsky's inner circle, but it's certainly fun to tag along with them for the ride.
