REVIEW: Mentally Incontinent by Joe Peacock

Joe Peacock is one of those rare people to whom interesting things just sorta happen. For the amusement of his friends, he'd often recount in long e-mails his latest misadventure, whether it was witnessing an armed robbery or being vomited on during his first sexual experience. In 2002, he started collecting those stories on a Web site he founded, mentallyincontinent.com. Soon he had a large following of visitors, including a rabid core group who suggested edits and helped him hone his writing craft. In 2005, he self-published the best stories from his site as a collection and in the years since he's been holding impromptu readings across the country, selling thousands of copies (mostly out of the back of his truck).
In his follow up book Mentally Incontinent: The time I Burned Down hooters, That Time A Stalker Crashed On My Couch, and Nine Other Stories Of My Weird Life, Joe delivers a batch of hilarious and brand-new stories. Adult - Humor


REVIEW:
Mentally Incontinent is a collection of stories from Joe Peacock’s strange but true life. The bright orange cover and words MENTALLY INCONTINENT screamed out to me from the table as I walked by one day at the book store. It was an impulse buy. I bought it based solely on the cover and I’m glad I did.
Joe gets himself into so many outrageous situations that you almost don’t believe they’re true, but no matter how far fetched the stories seem, they contain an underlying sincerity to them that makes you root for Joe every time. Almost everything that happens to him is because he’s too naïve or is unable to let someone down and hurt their feelings. The story “1-800-STALKER” is a prime example. He meets a woman over the phone while ordering records. They get along great which she interprets as true love and flies out (uninvited) from Phoenix to be with Joe. After the shock of coming home to see a strange woman he has never met sitting on his couch, it doesn’t take long to see that she is “bat shit crazy”! Of course Joe doesn’t tell her to get the hell out or slap a restraining order on her……no, he lets her stay in his room for the night while he locks himself up in his office. Yes, he could avoid most of the situations he gets into but what fun would that be??
If you want to check out some of the stories from this book and from his previous book (also called Mentally Incontinent – it's out of print) go HERE for a sampling. Check out the chapter titled Round 7 (pg. 78) “Talk about blowing an opportunity”. It is one of the funniest stories I have ever read and I can’t believe he wasn’t irrevocably scarred for life by that one sexual experience! Round 8 (pg. 98) “Meat Me At Lovejoy” Another Kroger Story is another funny one. I especially love the stories that have his best friend Mike and his wife Andrea in them. They lend a nice balance to Joe’s naïveté.

Rating: 3.8 out of 4 It’s a quick read and very funny

Author’s website: http://www.joethepeacock.com/
All the stories originally posted here: Mentally Incontinent story archives
Buy: Mentally Incontinent: That Time I Burned Down a Hooters, That Time My Stalker Crashed on My Couch, and Nine Other Stories from My Weird Life  Bargain priced at $5.28!!