Bloke as bloke can be

Yes Man

Danny Wallace

Oh Danny.

As bloke as bloke can be, Danny Wallace is either unassumingly brilliant or a mastermind whose madness works just as well as a fumbling method. Or he can very well be both.

I first encountered Danny in Powerbooks. He was on the cover of his own book, dressed in a white t shirt and jeans and holding out a sign that simply said "Join Me." The eagerness and sincerity of his face was convincing and he really did look like a nice man. I kept coming back to the book store and he'd still be there, on the same bottom shelf, asking me to join him. I soon gave in and bought that book, wondering if buying it would be tantamount to actually joining. I was wrong. I have yet to send a passport-size picture to Join Me, PO Box 33561, London, E3 2YW (UK).

Getting to know Danny was nice. I really thought he was amazing and brilliant and to a certain extent, hot. He likes his tea, which says a lot, peculiarities withstanding.

As I finished reading "Join Me," I went on an obsessive Google search on Danny Wallace. I had discovered that he had founded a micronation, gone on to be a tv host, and other nice things. But Google obsessions only last for a night.

Then I went to a National Bookstore branch that I never really visit and I see a predominantly orange book with a picture of a man impersonating Superman. There are white letters telling me this man's name. It was Danny Wallace and he's turned himself into the Yes Man.

I leap towards the book, pet it, hug it, and I buy it one sale, holding on to it like a child who's gotten good grades and have received this book like a prize lollipop.

~~~~

So I get to meet Danny again. I read "Join Me" in jeeps and coffee shops and I must have caught the attention of other people because of my laughing.

Danny is that friend who gets himself into trouble but doesn't think much of it until much later. The things he's gotten himself into exasperates his friends but for some reason, delights his readers. I understand his friends, and I would have agreed with them that he's gone over the tolerant boundary of mental. No one says yes to everything, except maybe for Danny and for his Spanish friend Marc.

For one, this book is rife with honesty and eagerness put together to form a warped sense of innocence. He says yes to things and people and adverts and his commentary with the bravery that innocence can almost afford. But you know that he knows that it's stupid. Like when Hanne, his ex-girlfriend asks "Danny, do you mind me seeing another man". Danny is left no choice. He has at this point challenged himself to say yes to everything for the next six months and the best he can do is sigh and say "yes."

For all his mishaps and travails, The Yes Man is someone worth rooting for. Even when he's emailing the son of a slain sultan in Omar, or stoned in Holland.

(originally written July 6, 2008 and can be viewed at http://mypam.multiply.com/reviews/item/17 )

Comments

[Matt Whitby]

I hope you joined Danny's "collective".

Love, Joinee Whitby.

[RedMaryJane]

Yes! I am a joinee, but I haven't really sent in a passport photo yet. Thank you for dropping in a reply!