Who is Rob? Rob Sachs was a producer at NPR when he started a podcast about handling life’s everyday indignities, the small social and practical disasters nobody prepares you for. The podcast became a book, What Would Rob Do? An Irreverent Guide to Surviving Life’s Daily Indignities, published in 2010.
What is inside
Each chapter takes on a familiar problem: a coffee stain before a big meeting, a name you have forgotten, a neighbor’s barking dog, a bad haircut. Sachs mixes his own (usually unfortunate) experiences with advice from experts he interviewed, such as dry cleaners, etiquette writers and doctors. Some of the most practical material is the most mundane. The section on stain triage, what to do in the first minutes and what never to do, is worth the price on its own.
How irreverent?
The subtitle promises irreverence, and readers expecting the extreme-scenario survival guides that were fashionable at the time may be surprised by how mild it is. This is public-radio irreverence: wry, a little self-deprecating, with a few bathroom jokes for the inner eight-year-old. Nothing in it is designed to shock. In a crowded humor market, that restraint is a relief.
Verdict
A quick, friendly read that leaves you with a handful of tricks you will actually use. It works best dipped into a chapter at a time, and it makes a good gift for a recent graduate about to discover how many indignities adult life contains.
Sources: ‘Tell Me More’ Staffer Asks, ‘What Would Rob Do?’, NPR; What Would Rob Do?, Turner Publishing.
