Matt Page- "I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell"

One of the books recommended to me by an old friend was Tucker Max’s, I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. The only description he gave me before I read it was “Its freaking hilarious.” Well to say the least, I had no idea what to expect. By the title of the book I was wondering what it could be about. It wouldn’t take long before I was hooked on Tucker’s tales and stories from his college experiences. On the surface, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell is a collection of short stories from Max's life, generally involving drinking, having sex, doing immature things, or some combination thereof. Almost every story in the book is laugh-out-loud funny, a somewhat astounding feat in it of itself because of the types of stories Max is writing. His stories are the kind we experience every weekend (though obviously more outrageous), but the kind that never really translate to story telling. Generally, after someone recounts that type of story, they end it with a "you have to be there." Well, Max makes the reader feel like they were there. He puts the reader in his shoes and then walks them through the night, letting the reader witness the belligerence and debauchery firsthand. The deeper message in Max's writing is that Max is always honest, and lives life his way. The keen reader will notice that Max never backs off from who he is, doesn't change for different people, he is always Tucker Max. The power that comes with such an attitude is amazing, and every story in the book shows that while Max may do immature, mean-spirited, immoral things, he's always honest with himself about the nature of his actions. And with that honesty, comes freedom---freedom from commitments he doesn't want to make, from relationships he doesn't want to have, the freedom to just live life the way he wants to. By always being true to himself, Max can live his life his way, not how society tells him he has to.