The Suburban You: Reports from the Home Front
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The Suburban You: Reports from the Home Front Audible Audiobook – Abridged

Mark Falanga (Author, Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
3.0 3.0 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
See all formats and editions
Mark Falanga is a slick urban dweller, at the top of his game professionally, with a gorgeous corporate executive wife and a hip coterie in the coolest neighborhood in the city. But when baby makes three, Mark and his family enter the twilight zone called the suburbs, where public schools are good, many wives stay home, and children ride their tricycles in the driveway.

Nothing is the same ever again.

With the dry wit of David Sedaris, and Dave Barry's love of the absurd, Falanga details his new, suburban landscape from the point of view of a bewildered but gung-ho everyman. From the complex political pecking order in the neighborhood, with its ultracompetitive block parties and its consuming holiday-card rivalry, to the surprises lurking on every corner, such as the 12-year-old pyromaniac next door and the suspiciously broad-shouldered "lady" on the commuter train, The Suburban You describes in slyly understated prose the vicissitudes of life in the 'burbs.

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  1. Listening Length
    4 hours and 38 minutes
  2. Author
    Mark Falanga
  3. Narrator
    Mark Falanga
  4. Audible release date
    September 17, 2004
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B0006IU6P0
  8. Version
    Abridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 4 hours and 38 minutes
Author Mark Falanga
Narrator Mark Falanga
Audible.com Release Date September 17, 2004
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Abridged
Language English
ASIN B0006IU6P0
Best Sellers Rank #553,145 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#3,523 in Sociology (Audible Books & Originals)
#5,453 in Parenting & Families Humor
#7,130 in Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals

Customer reviews

3 out of 5 stars
3 out of 5
16 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

RL
5.0 out of 5 stars Great anectodes about living in a suburb. Perfect for city transplants.
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2015
This book is not for anyone who lives in a suburb and takes themselves too seriously. If you are looking for amusing anectodes about moving from a large city to a nearby suburb, then you will find plenty to laugh at. Easy read, great narrative style. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Lisa
1.0 out of 5 stars This is the worst book I have ever read!
Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2005
Honestly, this is the first book that was so bad, I couldn't finish it. I thought the concept was clever, but the stories told by the author (using an irritating second person "you" throughout the book)are boring and not funny. The author tells us this book is hilarious, but he is sadly mistaken. The stories are uninteresting, haphazard, and don't really capture the true essence of suburbia. The author brags about all the money he has and lives in a world that is not reflective of the majority of the suburbs. For example, he talks about how Halloween has changed since he was a kid. He says now Halloween parties, catered and served by butlers in tuxes, have replaced kids trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. What? I think in 99% of the suburbs, kids still dress up and trick-or-treat door-to-door. Most of his stories reflect this thinking in his irritating, ego boosting, bragging banter. I never take the time to write reviews, but this book was so bad I felt I needed to warn people. Try buying a book by Dave Barry. He is really a funny author who won't tell you how funny he is!
11 people found this helpful
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gcon
3.0 out of 5 stars very even, interesting, not bad, not great
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2004
this is a good solid bunch of essays about moving to and living in suburbia. nothing all that hilarious, really, but it wasn't dreadful or boring. it was non-threatening, clean humor. it almsot reminded me of something you would find in a reader's digest, or on a spot on NPR. even though i don't live in suburbia, i can appreicate the humor in each situation, but there wasn't anything drop dead hilarious. it is a quick read, great for a pallate cleanser between books. it's a book you can put down and pick up a few days later without feeling like you ruined the flow.
One person found this helpful
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Peter McD
5.0 out of 5 stars Peter M
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2004
I have just finished Mark Falanga's "The Suburban You" and I haven't read anything recently that made me laugh so much. As a middle-aged male who has lived in the suburbs for a number of years, it has made me realize that what has seemed to be mundane is really an exciting, entertaining and humorous life. Our familial battles with our wives, our encounters with the swimming teachers/coaches, the adolescent next door, our parents' visits or the neighbor's affairs are all funny and poignant events. Falanga reminds me of Larry David's self-deprecating humor where David may find humor in standing in a cocktail party with a Sata spear, Falanga finds it in being deprived of grape juice by his wife. If you have made the move from Chicago to the North Shore, NYC to Westchester, LA to Pasadena you will truly relate and enjoy the short vignettes that Falanga writes about.
One person found this helpful
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t. joseph
1.0 out of 5 stars A gift of acute pain for me and no acute talent for the author
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2007
I received this book as a gift due to my proximity to the very same suburbs this hack is writing about, and found the work to be wretched in both style and content. I won't belabor the many failures this book holds, but suffice to say this fellow had a great agent and an idiot for an editor, otherwise this book should never have seen the light of day.

The fact that most, if not all, of the favorible reviews were from one-time contributors leads me to suspect a shill-factor at work here. To steal from Salinger, if he was half the writer he thought he was (and believe me, his opinion thereof is quite substantial), he'd be lucky.
2 people found this helpful
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Prof. in TX
1.0 out of 5 stars SO very, very very bad
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2007
This should be a lesson to everyone about how not to write a book. Mr. Falanga is pompous, idiotic, and mysogynistic. But worse than anything else, he is not funny(He certainly thinks he is though)!

If you took away all of Seinfeld's wit and instead gave him a loaded sense of self importance, and then, in addition, had him brag about his amazing life for any number of innumerable pages you would have this book. If you like that, give the book a try.

Seriously...I want the four hours of my life back.
3 people found this helpful
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EB
5.0 out of 5 stars Get more laughs in a day...
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2004
My 10-year old son recently read me a statistic that kids laugh about 1400 times a day while adults are only laughing 14 times a day. Clearly this is not the case in the Falanga household, where we meet a couple who has one funny experience after another. Our family of four has read the book individually, and we often read these stories aloud. Tales about simple aspects of life such as hearing aids, holiday dinners with friends, and keeping the car windows open or closed told with a dry wit make us laugh out loud, and I am often crying from laughing so hard. I know my daily laugh quotient has increased since reading The Suburban You, (perhaps making me feel younger) and sharing laughs with my family is a joy.
One person found this helpful
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Real Suburban Mom
1.0 out of 5 stars Not like real life in the Chicago suburbs!
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2005
I usually read, not write, reviews, on amazon.com., but this book was so bad I felt compelled to warn others: don't waste the time, or money on this book! The author comes across as a self-important boor, and his wife as a self-centered shrew. How the author could claim to love his wife, and write about her in a poor light, is beyond me. And I'm embarassed to have people who live elsewhere to get the impression that this is what life is like in the suburbs of Chicago - we're not nearly so shallow. I can only assume that the positive reviewers were friends of the author.
8 people found this helpful
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