I've got to say that I have mixed feelings about M. Dylan Raskin's Little New York Bastard. It is an account of Raskin trying to find a place for himself in this modern word. For him that means fleeing his lifelong home of New York for Chicago, where he hopes a better “anonymous” life will await him. It’s the mental turmoil that he goes through on his journey that provides the meat and bones of the book.

On one hand, I really related to Raskin’s feeling of anomie and alienation, something that he describes in-depth. Raskin’s feelings that the world is full of self-absorbed, fake, trend-following people are feelings that have often echoed my own. It’s fair to say that I’m sitting here writing about Raskin’s book, on a beautiful Saturday night, because I share many of the same anti-social feelings about modern society as he does.

On the other hand, what disturbed me about the book is the hate and intolerance that Raskin puts behind his opinions. I lost count of how many times he referred to people, as well as anything else he didn’t fancy, as “disgusting” and on several occasions he flat out professed a desire to see harm come to those that didn’t meet up to his lofty expectations. Although I think Raskin’s rage really boils down to the use of dramatic license, at times I felt like I was reading the rants of some distraught teenager who wound up shooting-up a high school.

Where I tend to blame my frequent introversion on myself, Raskin puts the blame squarely on others and that to me makes him just as much of the problem as those who he is rallying against. If you aren’t willing to let people in, and hate everybody who’s different for right or wrong, you aren’t going to find what you’re looking for.

In the end, the moral of Little New York Bastard echoes something that Mike Ness of Social Distortion said in one of his songs: “You can run all your life without going anywhere.” Either way the book really jarred me into thinking about what kind of world we have created for our children. In all seriousness, I would say this book might be good for parents who have an incorrigible teenager that they are trying to understand.

In one of the later chapters of the book Raskin admits that he is not only seeking an anonymous utopia but also wants to make a “dent’ on the world. Well, Mr. Raskin, you succeeded with me - your book made a “dent” and I will continue to watch my back and note the closest exit from people as angry as you. Lighten up a little, will ya?