Humor columnist Cameron follows his bestselling 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter
(2001) with a somewhat scrambled but goofily satisfying parody of inspirational how-to books. While warning women that effecting real change in their men is nigh impossible ("Attempting to modify a man's behavior is like trying to talk cats into playing the tuba—even if you can convince them to put their lips on the thing, they'll never understand why
"), he does offer plenty of tongue-in-cheek hints: to get a man to exercise, for example, buy him cool new gear; to cope with a man who snores, "teach yourself to snore back in self-defense." As an ostensibly "Changed Man" himself, Cameron is free to paint a comically unflattering portrait of male behavior in sections such as "Male's Verbal Skills Are Slow To Develop, and Then They Stop." In other words, men are idiots, and Cameron offers numerous funny takes on that thesis—only some of which might sound familiar to readers of Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys
, a classic comic take on the male psyche. Agent, Jody Rein
. (Oct. 1)
Forecast:
The success of Cameron's previous book and the ABC television show based on it should provide him with a sizable audience.
