Martin Bodek's 3 favorite reads in 2023

I wish I had discovered this book before I visited the Sistine Chapel, rather than after it. On the other hand, it's possible that if I did so, I would still be in there staring up at the ceiling. The authors make *such* a marvelous case, and fill in so many supporting backstory details that it does feel that it is absolutely open-and-shut.

Nevertheless, they still responsibly dedicate the opening chapters to explain that protest art itself is a thing, and provide sterling examples, including the art already present on the walls of the Sistine Chapel before Master Buonarotti began his work. Once that's established in its own right, the rest of what's going on with the ceiling and the front wall is just mind-bending stuff.

Michelangelo's art was subject to the whims of various rulers coming and going, with numerous edicts, with multiple close calls, and we have what we have through glorious events, accidents, and histories. Awareness of this makes absorbing this book that much of a richer experience.

I also fell in love, as it were, with Michelangelo himself. I learned a world about him that I was ignorant about before, but my eyes were opened to his will, desires, drive, accomplishment, delicious chutzpah, and unimaginably divine talent.

When I regrettably closed the book after reading the last page, I was compelled to reach out to both authors, declaring that I had uncovered a grand detail of the ceiling that they might have overlooked.

I was so pleased when they both responded, in opposite ways! One said, indeed, I may have found something, but the book alas, hath been written! The other said the Vatican itself actually raised my point, and it was already countered with their interpretation of Michelangelo's intent.

I'm a sucker for survival stories, but I'm a durn fool for expertly written survival stories. The truth is, he had me at 438, and the rest could have been downhill coasting.

This fine writer, though, did not rest on laurels. He did what a story like this required: great reporting despite language barriers, detailed professional psychological/survivalist commentary at correctly curated junctures, evidence backing up the story, a detailed map of the unreal journey, and the mental state of the protagonist throughout and after.

The story is also strongly linear, which gives it forward momentum, which is key for a story like this, because you need to move forward to survive, and not look back and dwell on the past. This is a great story in great hands.

Rarely do I - and frankly, neither do others - give a silly comedic romp a full 5 stars, but migosh, if any book ever deserved it, it's this one.

It would be cliche to say that "Dave's still got it," because he doesn't just got it, but he's elevated his game with his last several books. His previous general books on politics and manhood were endless, hilarious riffs, but here, there's fabulously dense plotting. Now, I should say, that if Mr. Barry got any help with that, then this whole review deserves to be cancelled, but if not, then I bestow the regard of genius upon his head.

The narrative is also positively Dickensian with all the fantastic coincidences that drive the plot, and especially the ending. The major difference? The coincidences make sense! Every character's appearance at certain junctures totally jive with reality! A nice little bow on the ending, where the good guys get theirs, and the bad guys get theirs too, nicely and neatly closes the whole thing out in a huge, satisfactory manner.

I haven't laughed this hard since... Dave Barry made me laugh hard.