Public Apology: In Which a Man Grapples With a Lifetime of Regret, One Incident at a Time

Compiled from his highly popular "Public Apology" column, Bry's satirical "letters" feature tongue-in-cheek apologies to a wide range of people from junior high, high school, and college, to New York City and adulthood. But these acts of contrition never make the reader really belly-laugh. Some of his misadventures in grade school stem from the hormonal silliness of adolescence and puberty%E2%80%94terrifying young charges with a horror film, stealing a six-pack of beer, throwing empty cans on Jon Bon Jovi's lawn. Bry's confessions, although charged with the immediacy of nostalgic reflection, lack the manic juice of David Sedaris, or Dave Berry's candor. In the segments devoted to New York and adulthood, Bry's voice feels more at home. He slips into helter-skelter observations of his nutty episodes of "acting out," where situations or people call for a somewhat different decorum. Other than the unusually candid moments involving his ailing father and family, Bry's laugh fest does not translate from column to tome with humor or wit fully intact. (Mar.)