#ROGER BENNETT BOOK FULL#

I didn't expect as many gut-punch moments, including his vivid description of becoming a citizen. (Also: Learned more about his penis - and others penises - than I might have expected.)

It surprised me, but gave so much more insight into how bad England was in the 1980s, and why the trifles of US pop culture represented hope for him It covers Ranch's time growing up in Liverpool - in all its brutality, which he's only ever joked about on the show - but not his adulthood in the US.

So, I somewhat thought I knew what this memoir was about.īut just as, 'Love you, Davo / Love you, Roger,' is always the best part of every podcast, the book has so much more warmth and depth than I expected.

At least, that's how it feels after listening to him (and Davo) talk about soccer on 'Men in Blazers' for hundreds and hundreds of hours. Roger and I have been friends for several years. **I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Perhaps after a long period of loggerheads, Bennett can help us remember exactly what makes us love this country as well. In a nation so bitterly divided and politically in turmoil, we could do far worse than sit down with a longneck Budweiser (or twelve) and read about the love and passion a boy from Liverpool has for the USA.

#ROGER BENNETT BOOK FULL#

Bennett's wide eyed awe of the country he's dreamed about for so long shines through on the pages and one has to wonder how many telephone polls he walked into while trying to take the bright lights of America in.Īs with everything Bennett does, Reborn in the USA is full of heart, wit, and jokes that are funny 60% of the time. These stories are full of bizarre hero worship of the Chicago Bears, questionable American fashion, and John Hughes movies. Sandwiched between these chapters is Bennett's lifechanging trip to Chicago, his first experience of the USA. Bennett's tales of childhood and coming of age in Liverpool are as uncomfortably honest and self-deprecating as you'd imagine from a man who's always pointing when his nipples are tingling from excitement. Bennett, a recently naturalized US citizen, here steps back from (most) of the football banter to deliver a heartfelt memoir of his life as a Liverpudlian lad with a simple dream of leaving it all behind for the glitz and glamour of 1980s Chicago(?) as soundtracked by Bruce Springsteen. Premier League fans in the USA (may) know Bennett as one half of the moderately popular Men in Blazers duo who attempt to mask their sub-optimal footballing analysis with an endless stream of guest stars, one liners, and pie predictions. Roger Bennett loves America, and Reborn in the USA is his 'scream it from the rooftops' paean (or is it a caterwaul?) to his country of choice. Drenched in the culture of the late '80s and '90s from the UK and the USA, and the heartfelt, hilarious sense of humor that has made Roger Bennett so beloved by his listeners, here is both a truly unique coming-of-age story and the love letter to America that the country needs right now. (Re)Born in the USA captures the universality of growing pains, growing up, and growing out of where you come from. A month in Chicago, and a life-changing night spent in the company of the Chicago Bears, was the first hit of freedom, of independence, of the Roger Bennett he knew he could be. When he made a real, in-the-flesh American friend who invited him over for the summer, he got to visit the promised land. Intro-duced first through the gateway drug of The Love Boat, then to Rolling Stone, the NFL, John Hughes movies, Run-DMC, and Tracy Chapman, Roger embraced everything that would capture the imagination of a teenager growing up Stateside. When he embraced American popular culture, the dull gray world he lived in turned to neon teal-a color which had not even been invented in England yet.

That was America- with its sunny skies, beautiful women, and cool kids with flipped collars who ate at McDonald's. But there was one idea, or ideal, that burned bright in Roger's heart. As an outsider-a private-schooled Jewish kid in working-class, heavily Catholic Liverpool-Roger Bennett wasn't winning any popu-larity contests. A memoir for fans of Jon Ronson and Chuck Klosterman, but with Roger Bennett's signature pop culture flair and humor.īeing a teenager isn't easy, no matter where in the world you live or how much it does or doesn't rain in your hometown. One-half of the celebrated Men in Blazers duo, longtime culture and soccer commentator Roger Bennett traces the origins of his love affair with America, and how he went from a depraved, pimply faced Jewish boy in 1980's Liverpool to become the quintessential Englishman in New York.

Roger bennett book