Review: Poking fun at self-help gurus
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 12, 2012
The story's tagline is "Based on the Collected Teachings of Jim Hoenfhmfjn." The first tipoff that "Awaken Your Perfect Self" was a spoof was "A note about Pronunciation," referring to Jim's last name, "Hoenfhmfjn." A look at the Table of Contents should lay any remaining doubts to rest.And spoof it did, parodying the plethora of self-help gurus who produce the ubiquitous TV infomercials ballyhooing their success and offering to share their secrets for a modest sum (plus shipping and handling). Like a biographer following his subject around, the author traveled with the fictitious Jim Hoenfhmfjn, studying Jim's philosophy and collecting pearls of wisdom for the book he's writing about Jim.Jim's philosophy was really pretty simple and could be summed up with a few of his quotes:* "Everyone you meet is a potential resource to be exploited."* "To find success, you must step on friends along the way. True friends will understand and appreciate it."And my favorite: "The journey of life is like climbing a mountain. You may have to push people off to reach the top, but the view makes it all worthwhile."The author, Brian Haigh, managed to skewer the "I'm successful - you can be, too" personalities with gentle tongue-in-cheek humor without being too brutal or vicious. There were some laugh out loud times, but there were more of the "Aha, I always suspected that" moments."Awaken Your Perfect Self" was a short, enjoyable read and a good example of using the Kindle Single format for presenting short literary works.