cover image The Reluctant Metrosexual: Dispatches from an Almost Hip Life

The Reluctant Metrosexual: Dispatches from an Almost Hip Life

Peter Hyman. Blackstone Audiobooks, $29.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-7861-2727-6

In this wry essay collection, Hyman explores the repercussions of being metrosexual (a marketing descriptor that refers to straight men with sensibilities for the finer things in life, like oatmeal face scrubs and track lighting). But in his intelligent musings on everything from leaving law school to being propositioned by a muscular masseuse, Hyman transcends that goal and offers a broader wisdom about what it means to try to live life outside labels. That he reads his own book at first works against him because of his sarcastic manner and monotone voice. His tenor may also distract listeners trying to remember the difference between straight, gay and metrosexual, but he frequently reiterates his preference for women; indeed, some of the most powerful material comes when Hyman discloses his greatest moments of mortification around the opposite sex. As Hyman talks candidly about struggling to avoid the traditional corporate track at Vanity Fair and facing a machine gun on an ill-fated Mexican adventure, listeners will grow to know and respect him, and through him a whole generation of sensitive men trying to make their way in America's urban centers.