The American Dream: Walking in the Shoes of Carnies, Arms Dealers, Immigrant Dreamers, Pot Farmers, and Christian Believers

by Harmon Leon

For some, the American Dream is a pre-fab house in the suburbs with 2.5 kids and a two-week vacation at the end of the year. To others, it is working a push fruit cart in Oakland in order to put food on the family's table in Oaxaca. In The American Dream Harmon Leon draws upon his experiences of adopting personas and disguises to infiltrate the various institutions of everyday life, living among a diverse range of subcultures and learning first hand how they see their vision and utopia. His incursions include working as a marijuana farmer in a hippie commune in Northern California; becoming a carnie in rural Indiana; visiting a tourist attraction in Mexico (that allows people to simulate illegally crossing the border); venturing to Hollywood while trying to climb the ranks in the star-making machine; and working in the strawberries fields of California with newly arrived immigrants. The American Dream is a funny, satirical, and ultimately poignant take on what it means to be an American today.

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Harmon Leon is an award-winning author, performer, and former senior writer for National Lampoon. His latest book, The Infiltrator, was released in 2006, and his writing credits for print and television include NPR, National Geographic, Maxim, Cosmopolitan, The BBC, and Showtime Television Network. He lives and works in San Francisco. (from the publisher's website)"

Reviews

[Vince Darcangelo · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news...

This review originally appeared in the ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

The American Dream: Walking in the Shoes of Carnies, Arms Dealers, Immigrant Dreamers, Pot Farmers, and Christian Believers
By Vince Darcangelo, Special to the Rocky

Published October 30, 2008 at 7 p.m.

* Nonfiction. By Harmon Leon. Nation Books, $15.95. Grade: A

Book in a nutshell: Humor writing is a tricky business. How does one translate real-life anecdotes or humorous thoughts into laughs on the page? In his first four books - most recently National Lampoon's Road Trip USA, which commemorated the 25th anniversary of the film National Lampoon's Vacation - author and comedian Leon gives a veritable clinic on how to be funny in print.

Leon's shtick is to adopt a persona and "infiltrate" unsuspecting organizations by posing as a potential member - with madcap results. In past outings, Leon has worked as a bounty hunter, dined with white supremacists, partied with Promise Keepers and even co-hosted a DVD prank show with O.J. Simpson.

Here, Leon rubs elbows with folks in search of the American Dream, be it carnival workers in the Midwest, pot farmers in northern California, would-be immigrants in Mexico and suburban swingers. He even gets outed - for the first time in his career - at a celebrity impersonator convention, proving that it takes a fake to spot a fake.

Beneath all the humor is a human touch. While mocking the absurdity of particular groups and situations, Leon's writing shows a fondness or at least appreciation for his subjects, be they fundamentalist Christians or carnies running the ring toss. He even lets his targets have their say, introducing each chapter with an essay from a member of the community he's infiltrated-including one penned by Boulder-based Ozzy Osbourne impersonator Don Wrege.

Best tidbit: Leon's 10-page account of his appearance on the television show Blind Date, which involved heavy doses of public intoxication and lederhosen. (Hilarious footage of this is available on YouTube.)

Pros: This book will make your sides hurt.

Cons: The personal essays from Leon's targets disrupt the comic momentum without adding much to the final product.

Final word: A master of disguise - and literary hijinx - Leon satirizes all that's comical and commendable about the American Dream.

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

As published in the Portland Mercury, December 4, 2008:

Reading Harmon Leon's new book, The American Dream, I winced when the author described a warfare-themed sales video as: "Filmed from a helicopter and set to speed metal, missiles destroy vehicles, buildings, and everything in their path—you can run, but you can't hide—explained how a second shot is laser deployed."

Such gems of baffling verbosity, along with many other grammatical inaccuracies and, yes, misspellings (even my cell phone's text message software has a spell checker, people) infest this book like locusts. Perhaps Leon (and his editors...?) was affected by his subjects, who are, in no particular order of how easy they are to make fun of: carnival workers, hatemongering Christian extremists, celebrity impersonators, and suburban swingers. Leon goes undercover into these depressing subcultures, mingling with them and reporting back from the other side.

I interviewed Leon and read his first book, The Harmon Chronicles, in 2003, enjoying it very much. Back then, Leon was more prank-oriented and the pranks were very funny, like bringing a sock puppet named Mr. Cocksucker to a ventriloquism conference. He still has decent verbal comic timing, but he's no longer very conceptual, preferring now to simply mock subjects, who are generally too naïve, un-ironic, or uneducated to know any better. While "infiltrating" a celebrity impersonators' gathering, he does jump-kicks under a blond Austin Powers wig that barely hides his white-person dreadlocks. On the reality TV show Blind Date, he shows up wearing lederhosen. Naturally, Leon earns certain, sometimes amusing reactions from such behavior, but his shenanigans also send a clear message: The focus of American Dream is the crrraziness of its author, not probing insights into the lives of its unknowing participants.

Thanks in no small part to the book's countless textual errors, Leon comes across more as a witless lunkhead than a loveable rapscallion. His complete disinterest in cultural analysis has the quality of a bad show on Comedy Central, and American Dream is ultimately about as entertaining and fulfilling as a couple hours of TV. To his credit, however, Leon is commercial free.

[Elisa]

This author used terrible grammar AND did not really go in depth enough to make a difference. It felt like he was making fun of many of the people he was trying to 'be', so the whole book feels kind of gross. Had he honestly been trying to give us an idea of what these folks lives are like I think it could have been a great book. As it is, it is scattered and disappointing, leaving me with the feeling that this guy 'the cool hippie' growing up.

of course, I didn't finish it. Maybe at the end it was phenomenal. I doubt it.

[Dave Metge]

A pretty cool retrospective of one guy's journey to infiltrate different groups/sectors of the US. Hilarious and sobering at the same time, particularly the stories about carnies and the religious zealots.

[Elisabeth Jansen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Void of any real insights or humor, I found his writing and subject matter relatively contrived. It felt like investigative reporting done by a cast member of Punk'd. Maybe a good read for the beach or a long plane ride...maybe not.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were a few moments I laughed out loud reading this book. For that reason alone, a book deserves at least 4 starts.

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very entertaining!! Reader emerses (sp) himself in different "illegal" enterprises and tells his story.. funny!!

[Jon Britton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh. Burning Man hippie tries to be Jon Ronson but nobody can care.

[Autumn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a horrible book.