Bookworms: Tough Sh*t (2012) by Kevin Smith

Whether you like him or not, Kevin Smith has always been a communicator, through film (e.g. ‘Clerks’, ‘Chasing Amy’, ‘Dogma’, ‘Red State’), tv, comic or most prolifically, podcasts (SModcast Network), where there is almost a 24/7 stream of Smith on most topics. In ‘Tough Sh*t: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good’, he dispenses elements of the Smith wisdom in a half self-help, half memoir manner, similar to Robert Rodriguez’ ‘Rebel Without a Crew’ or Lloyd Kaufman’s ‘Make Your Own Damn Movie’, albeit with the unmistakeable Kevin Smith style, replete with sexual references and an air of mischief.

Tackling his life in roughly chronological order, Smith discusses the different stages. From his childhood, to ‘Clerks’ and the 90s/00s film period, through Red State/Independence. Then onto podcasting, including a section on the Southwest Airlines incident. As he talks about each one, he pulls out the central ‘life lesson’ that he has gained by the experience and uses these to build up a picture of how his world view has evolved. Underpinning most of these events he stresses a strong sense of family, as well as highlighting the support of his wife; in fact he dedicates the whole book to his wife’s anus in typical Smith style.

Anyone who knows his podcast output will find much of the material familiar and so much of this book is a reworking of old stories into a new format, which while interesting for someone’s first encounter with his life, lessens the impact for the ‘dyed in the wool’ fan. Within the material, the older periods, especially the late 90s/early 2000s get discussed to a lesser depth than the later Red State, podcast and Southwest portions of the book, which is a shame as there must be valuable insights that those periods provided that shaped his current world view. To gain a more complete picture you would need to read this in conjunction with his earlier books, such as ‘My Boring-Ass Life’ (2009), but it would have been nice to have all the ‘life advice’ compiled here.

Within this, there is much to enjoy, with hilarious sections and some very interesting points to make, both from a personal perspective and from the industry side. While it is maybe better suited to the reader unaware of Smith’s history, there are enough tidbits for the fan to find new and interesting, even if it is just an old story from a new perspective.

There are a couple of notable omissions or barely referenced areas in the book though, such as comics or the tv show ‘Comic Book Men’. While ‘Comic Book Men’ would probably be better served by a book of its own, in the context of Smith’s hands on work (I say ‘hands on’ work here as Smith is not the focus of ‘Comic Book Men’, which has significant input from the cast).  An in depth section on his comic writing (e.g. ‘Batman: Widening Gyre’) would have been an excellent addition. There is also a lack of illustrations or photographs in the book, when there are many points where they would have been useful or at the very least interesting. In the Kindle edition I read, there are a couple of broken internet links

Generally, the book is in the usual Smith style, with his standard puerile elements and is relatively meandering, almost conversational. Mark Kermode, in his book ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Multiplex’ (2012) described Kevin Smith’s “internet rambling” style as “scattershot”, which has some basis in truth, but there is more focus here than in some of the podcast or internet presentations of the same material.

While I have my criticisms of the book, what it does have is Smith’s infectious enthusiasm for his subjects, engaging style and it is easy to dip in and out of. Some will find his sexual references and puerile elements a problem (he’s a big kid at heart, so the puerile is not necessarily negative), but if you are drawn into his world, he is a witty and more intelligent man than he is often given credit for. It is a lighter, less in depth read than a fan would like, especially one who already listens to the podcasts, but a good addition to his work nonetheless.