PRISONER OF WARS | Kirkus Reviews

All proper, all proper, all proper: The affable, laconic actor delivers a mix of memoir and self-help ebook.

“That is an method ebook,” writes McConaughey, including that it accommodates “philosophies that may be objectively understood, and in the event you select, subjectively adopted, by both altering your actuality, or altering the way you see it. It is a playbook, primarily based on adventures in my life.” A few of these philosophies come within the type of apothegms: “When you’ll be able to design your individual climate, blow within the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, preserve to liberate.” Others come within the type of generally rambling tales that by no means take the shortest route from level A to level B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, difficult go to to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who provided a big lesson in how disagreement might be expressed politely and with out rancor. Followers of McConaughey will get pleasure from his recollections—which line up squarely with different accounts in Melissa Maerz’s current oral historical past, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not simply that signature phrase, but in addition a type of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older man on the prowl for teenage ladies. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the function of Wooderson concerned inhabiting the thoughts of a dude who digs automobiles, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the movie initially had solely three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one factor properly, then one other. As soon as, then as soon as extra.” It’s clear that the creator is a considerate man, even an mental of types, although with out the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Although among the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this ebook is entertaining and full of fine classes.

A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.