All About Ed

It’s a rare book that opens with the writer admitting he’s an asshole, and different readers will, of course, respond differently to this unique authorial strategy. Do we hurl the book across the room? Toss it on the Weber and set it on fire? Drown it in the bath tub? Or do we, Looney Tunes-like, clip our nose with a clothespin, pour a stiff one, and continue reading with an exalted sense of what the comic writer Alex Heard called "hathos," a portmanteau of hatred and pathos: "A pleasurable sense of loathing, aroused by certain schlocky, schmaltzy, or just-plain-bad show biz personalities."