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Nearly every major city in the world has them: hidden underground seduction lairs where men gather to trade the most devastatingly effective techniques ever invented to seduce women.This is not fiction.For two years, bestselling author Neil Strauss lived among these men. Using the pseudonym Style to protect his real-life identity, he began his remarkable journey from AFC (Average Frustrated Chump) to PUA (Pickup Artist) to PUG (Pickup Guru) —refining his approach, sharing unforgettable encounters with the likes of Tom Cruise, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Courtney Love, and ultimately transforming himself from frog to prince . . . to prisoner.And then things started to get really strange.One of the most explosive and controversial books in years, The Game is guaranteed to change the lives of men and transform the way women understand the opposite sex forever. Read more
Listening Length : 9 hours and 27 minutes
Author : Neil Strauss
Narrator : Neil Strauss
Publication date : June 16, 2009
Language : English
Publisher : Harper
Version : Abridged
Program Type : Audiobook
Best Sellers Rank: #4,927 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #9 in General Sexual Health #10 in Men's Gender Studies #14 in Sex & Sexuality
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Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Hardcover
"The Game", at first, appears to be an informative, eye-opening, entertaining and DANGEROUS MANUAL ON HOW TO SEDUCE WOMEN. Deep within this controversial book, however, lies one of the best self improvement books available to man... as long as he understands and embraces the fundamental reality that the acquisition of confidence and personal worth are strictly required in order to succeed at the Game. A lot of low self esteem individuals will read this book and become, I believe, better men. And I completely understand the threat many women would feel by this material. But intelligent women are insulated from the manipulation at which many of the individuals featured in this story are so inept. Only the naïve are at risk, as they always have been. Many people refer to this book as a manual on how to seduce women. But Neil Strauss, its author, never made such a claim. It was merely his honest and humorous account of his experience in the PUA (pickup artist) community. But Strauss is a talented writer. And, as such, he not only managed to make this the very entertaining and insightful manual everybody said it was, but has also given an extremely valuable tool to goodhearted men with benign goals - a tool that can be used with mutual benefit, without anyone getting hurt or played. In spite of other reviewers' claims to the contrary, Strauss does disclose the nature and vivid examples of the emotional and spiritual consequences PUAs reap when they manipulate people for narcissistic purposes. This endeavor began when Strauss, a writer for the New York Times, was given an assignment to write about the underground pickup artist community. Strauss was a skinny, balding intellectual who felt awkward around women and hadn't had much success with them prior. He immediately homed in on a character named Mystery and hit the mother load. Mystery was a modern day Casanova and widely considered, by the cumulative underground community of PUAs, to be the preeminent pickup artist in the world. Tom Cruise's seduction guru character in "Magnolia" was supposedly based on Mystery. By the time Strauss finished his assignment, he had transformed himself and assumed Mystery's title as tenth degree pickup master of the universe. As I began reading the book, I felt uneasy. Knowing this knowledge was out there felt akin to suddenly discovering a bunch of troubled kids figured out how to make nuclear weapons. I've always had great interest in psychology and what makes people do the things they do. I discovered my knowledge of psychology was pale in comparison to these guys. They (the serious ones) study contemporary literature on psychology and ancillary subjects, many of which involve some sort of self-improvement. The young, horny ones operate with one laser-focused mission: Bed women... bed as many "9+" women as possible! The more they bed, the more they validate themselves. But some, more enlightened ones, were simply looking to find the best wife/partner they possibly could. Strauss began as Mystery's student. After a few successes, he began to catch the eye of other PUAs to whom he quickly acclimated himself. He soaked up their knowledge like a sponge. At the end of two years, Strauss had studied, one-on-one, the methods of all the world's alleged greatest pickup artists and took that which best suited his own personal style and made it his own. In the process he became an underground, worshipped legend - Code Name: Style. But in the process, he also greatly strengthened his core person and acquired the Holy Grail: self-esteem. This book doesn't just contain the cumulative knowledge of the PUA community, but one hell of an entertaining story. It must be stated that the Game's contribution to much of Strauss' unstoppable success is mitigated by the fact that he was a writer for one of the most respected publications in the world, living in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills over Sunset Boulevard (a consequence of rising to the top of the PUA community), regularly interviewing celebrities and driving a nice car; most men with these assets aren't having issues dating. Still, I believe the majority of what he achieved was aided by his mastery of the basic principals of "The Game". And those are: 1. You can only "game" a woman with whom you are prepared to fail (if you find yourself wanting her too badly, you'll never have her) 2. Exude extreme confidence 3. Demonstrate some kind of value, skill or talent NEAR your target, but not directly to her. Initially, pretend you don't even notice her. 4. Win over her friends 5. Be hard to get 6. Be fun 7. Handle challenges from competing men intellectually and psychologically. Never fight. 8. Respond to any signs that she's not interested as if it were "no big deal" 9. Once you have your target's attention, playfully insult ("neg") her. For example, "I like your hair, is that your natural color?" The more beautiful the woman, the more effective the neg is in garnering interest as they rarely hear comments of that nature. 10. Once attraction has been established, punish any unwanted behavior by withdrawing and disinterest, but do not pout or have an attitude. 11. Alternate between attraction and disinterest signals in a push-pull fashion until rapport is established There are many other rules, but those are the ones that stuck out to me. As I read, I found myself subconsciously adjusting my behavior, according to Game theory... and getting surprising results. Women that used to intimidate me with their "presence" were suddenly acting goofy/nervous around me. Could this be real? After I got over the initial excitement of my newfound knowledge, I began to get disappointed that the women that made ME goofy/nervous for so long could be so easily manipulated. I feared that I would start to lose respect for women. Who wants someone they don't respect? But by the time I got to the end, I realized that I wasn't manipulating anyone. I was simply carrying myself with more confidence. I found myself initiating conversations with strangers. There were no signs of neediness or social anxiety. I realized a man with a conscience can take a small portion of the knowledge shared in "The Game" to simply get over that first, most difficult hurdle of establishing rapport with a woman to whom he is attracted. I realized all anyone reading this book is really looking for is confidence. And many individuals that happen to gain a skill or talent as a result of his quest for a better sex life might just get some self esteem in the process. And that, I believe, is the greatest good of this material. The greater one's self esteem, the higher his goals. Knowledge is power. And it's only how that power is used that can reveal the nature of its possessor. The only real dangerous "players" out there are the ones whose cognitive reasoning and emotional maturity never fully develop and, at the same time, possess Oscar-worthy acting skills. Yeah, there are a few out there. But an intelligent woman knows when she's being played. And as Strauss saw repeatedly, manipulating and seducing a woman, in and of itself, is a victory that invariably leaves one hollow, still unfulfilled. In the end, your true self is what counts and is the only thing that can find and keep love.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2007 by Scrutinizing Consumer
Format: Kindle
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME: I am 24 years old and never had a girlfriend. I lost my virginity when i was 18 and so far had only slept with 3 girls (Which were all bad experiences because of my nervousness and whiskey d!@k problems). Growing up i was always insecure about myself because i always looked way too young for my age. Girls always went for guys that were older than them and this is the reason i never really dated in high school or middle school or ever. All the girls that i was into wanted nothing to do with me in terms of dating and intercourse. They looked at me as an insecure little boy, resulting in my low self-esteem. Now that i'm finishing college, i'm starting to break out of my shell. HOW I FOUND OUT ABOUT THE BOOK: Since I don't have much luck with girls, and was tired of making love to my hand, i decided to purchase myself a fleshlight. If you never heard of it, it's an artificial vagina. On the website which sells fleshlights and other toys for both men and women, i noticed that they also had a knowledge section. Here is where i came across the amazing masterpiece called "The Game". So i went on amazon to read the reviews and previewed the book. I decided that i need to read this asap. I bought the book a week or so later. WHAT I THINK ABOUT THIS BOOK: My life is going to change after reading this book. Neil Strauss has opened my eyes and made me realize that it's never too late to change and reinvent yourself. He is a perfect example of a AFC who never had much luck with women before he became a PUA. Soon after joining the PUA community, he learned different techniques on how to approach and talk to women. Today he is considered the best PUA in the world. Before joining the community, he would never have thought that he would be successful in picking up women let alone some of the most beautiful women in the world. The stories in this book are amazing. I was hooked from the very beginning. I have never finished reading a book so quickly. It's amazing what kind of adventures he had during his journey being a PUA. It has inspired me to be more adventurous and expand my horizons. My goal now is to learn as much as I can from his teachings and the PUA community and use them in real life. Im ready to reinvent myself. I'm ready to forget about my past and make the rest of my life the best of my life. Although i wont be using only Neil's material like his student who can't think for themselves, I'll create my own that will fit my personality. I figure it will work out best for me. I suggest this book to any guy who needs help getting women. I believe this book will give you confidence and encourage you to make the next step. WHAT THIS BOOK HAS DONE FOR ME SO FAR: I went to a sports bar in NYC recently to watch the world cup final with my friends. This book motivated me to break my mental block of insecurity and to approach girls and start conversations. When my friends and i finally picked a spot to chill at, i saw a beautiful Spanish girl named mercy who was there with 4 of her friends. She was the hottest out of all of them. I was hesitant at first but i found it in me to open up the set. I ignored her at first and started talking to one of her friends. Then i was talking to three of her friends. Noticing that i was paying her no attention, she said something to me and i was in. I made her comfortable with me by making her laugh and being friendly. I later gave her my number (which was a mistake because she never texted me. Probably because she saw me hit on other girls throughout the day. It was a typical AFC mistake.) I also got the numbers of 2 of her friends. Later i started talking to beautiful black woman who had short hair like amber rose. I found her very sexy. We talked, laughed and flirted. She told me she was 30 (Which was shocking to me since i would never think that an older woman would be into a younger guy like me.) she was divorced with 2 kids. MILF!! She later gave me her number but i never called her. I guess i have to build up more confidence to deal with MILFs Then there was Kayla, the sexiest waitress that worked there. She was a solid 8. She was the type of girl that i thought would never talk to a guy like me. I went out for a smoke and she came out seconds after. She asked "does anybody have a light?" i looked at her and, without hesitation, went over to her. I lit her cigarette and we chatted. I made her laugh and feel comfortable with me. I talked to her like i knew her for years. I don't know where i was getting this confidence from. I could tell she was into me. We later exchanged numbers. I still text her from time to time and i plan to visit her again once football season starts. GO JETS. That day i got a total of 4 numbers. My friends were shocked. They never saw me do that before. They've always known me for being the shy kid that never talks to girls. It was a success. I was shocked with myself. Especially because I didnt even rely on the methods from the book. I was just being my confident self. It was a test and it worked. I can't wait to see what the future holds for me. I see great potential in myself now. This book has already helped me grow. And this is just the beginning. Im sure it will help you as well. Good Luck
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Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2014 by Peter
Format: Hardcover
The Game seems like a miserable lifestyle of unfulfilling one night stands. It seems like it is made of insecure men, who want to validate themselves on their ability to pick up women. Being able to attract the people you wish to attract is a major part of life, your ability for romance is incredibly important. But for men like Mystery and Ross Jeffries, who have these activities define their lives, you see two shallow, broken men, who are trying so hard to hold it together, and clinging to meaningless titles. Let us all be reminded and know that this book begins with a house in ruins, Mystery at the brink of suicide, most others disbanded and gone, and Neil trying to hold together the remnants. The book is engaging, its a great read, but people who are reading it for the skills, should be wary of entering this game. It can be life draining, create that feeling of purposelessness. I weighed a lot through High School, and I'm still fat now, but I was always great at talking with women, never intimidated, never worried, but I never escalated. I worried about manipulating the girls unfairly. I'm the type of person who never dated a single girl in High School, but every guy would ask me how to escalate with their girl, because I projected a very unique charisma. This book entertained me to no end, because, that same charisma, I see, could have netted me a path into the gateway of manhood two or three years earlier had I cared to use it. The first thing to know about the game is the story, Neil Strauss talks about his conversion from an Average Frustrated Chump with no success with women to a lady's man, who walked in anywhere, and got himself a girl. It's an interesting story. It's unique. It's sort of a sexual Horatio Algier's tale. And, if you're looking for a unique true story to be entertained with, you could do a lot worse than The Game. The second thing, the reason this loses a star is because the book made me cringe. I would give it a lower score, but for a personal distaste, that would be unjustly rating to a very good book. The women in this book are put to a rating system, HB 5's to 10's, a sickening demeaning concept in my mind. Because the scale simply goes on looks, it's a shallow, and pointless concept that means absolutely nothing--sort of like the sex life of these characters. One of them had sex with several women unable to experience enough pleasure with his interactions to ej a culate. What type of meaningless existence are these men living in. In one part, Neil says that he was more concerned with perfecting the skills than getting the girl. I'd never want to get into that mindset. For me, I wanted to be able to seduce the women that I wanted to seduce, the women that I meant. Just because they were hot didn't mean they were interesting, and if they weren't interesting, if I wasn't connecting with them on an intelectual level, why in the hell would I want to connect with them on a physical level. I've stopped dates with girls who were quite hot, but lost my interest. Went out with a girl who said she liked the earlier Harry Potter books because they were shorter. I asked for the check and took her home. If I were to give this book to a younger person, I might tell him to appreciate the skill, but never let yourself get sucked into the game. Another major thing that I found absolutely stupid was DHVing (Displaying (demonstrating) Higher Value). Real Men, which this book lacks in spades, live their lives as men with High Value. To make a last point in this long review, what I took away from all my research is a very simple thing, sexual selectiveness. When you approach a woman, don't approach her wondering how you're going to get her, wonder if she's going to be worthy of getting you. You should be wondering if she's going to be interesting (not if she's going to be interested). Women dress up for men, women put on make-up for men, women do everything to look their best, just to go out and get groceries, because they hope that someone will be a man. So why are you so worried about if you're good enough for her, when you should be wondering if she's good enough for you. Take this feeling into life, going after what you want, and you'll get better results, rather than going after what you think will work.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2011 by Clarence Oliver
Format: Hardcover
A fantastic book. Yes my friends - a Hall of Extra-Awesome inductee!!! Attention readers... please stay seated following the review for the induction ceremony. I suspected this was going to be a 5 star book after reading just the first chapter. All of my Amazon review groupies (yes - you know you are one... or at least you will be after reading this review) know that I am very reluctant to give a book 5 stars. It really has to be exceptional to get 5 stars. What's the point of reading reviews written by tools that give everything they like 5 stars? What good is that? Rating books is like rating women. What? Are you going to give every one a 10? The dude that does is either blind or drunk. My entire life is dedicated to the pursuit of writing Amazon reviews, so they better mean something. Well... I take that back... most of my life is dedicated to reviews. The other 10% is dedicated to working my newspaper route. First - what this book is not. It is not a pick-up guide. In fact, I'd say that the author actually goes out of his way to not reveal too much detail about his pick-up routine. Rather, The Game is the author's account of how he was introduced to the pick-up world and how he mastered it... and everything in between. It is a story about his experiences. The Game is about a guy that goes from pathetic to super stud using the advice and techniques of pick-up artists. The book isn't great because of the pick-up tips, it is great because it is absolutely hilarious. I found myself laughing out loud reading The Game. I almost blew out my catheter! This might be the most entertaining book I've ever read (well - second only to any book I'd write... but haven't written yet... but I've got this one idea that has something to do with the moon and ancient Sumerians or something... and then there was this one thing about a donkey...anyway...). The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was supposed to be funny, and that book sucked. The Game, on the other hand, is a masterpiece. I can describe it in two words: freaking work of art. I was surprised to see it, but the story actually follows the ol' Joseph Cambell hero quest of separation, initiation, and return. Yeah - I know that is some deep stuff there. I can see you out there staring at your screen (yes I can) - the intellectuals in the room are wondering how such an amazing review could discuss Joseph Cambell. The rest are asking, "who is Joseph Cambell?" (he was mentioned in the book btw). What can I say, I'm like a loaded gun that that blasts deep thought in every direction. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! You want some more of that!? BLAM!!! Speaking of guns, anyone else notice the "Terminator" effect this has on your brain? You read this thing and suddenly it's like watching one of those scenes from The Terminator when you are inside Arnold's eyeballs seeing that red screen with the little data analysis routines running all over the place. I'm like what the heck is going on! One minute I'm sitting in a run-down Motel 6 reading this book on the toilet, and the next thing I know I'm walking down the street running some sort of computer program in my eyeballs! Ahhhh! What the heck is that? Then I try to shake it off and -BOOM- there it is again! So I try to shake my head and reboot. BOOM! There is goes again! I'm not trying to run it... it just seems to be operating by itself. So anyway - on with the festivities!!! (trumpets) Hear ye, hear ye! (I don't have a gavel so I'm pounding my stapler on my desk... also, I wanted to get one of those fancy white British judge wigs that they wear, but I had to settle for an afro wig from a Halloween store) (cue The Alan Parsons Project - Sirius) Whereas I read The Game, and Whereas I found it awesome, and Whereas the Hall of Extra-Awesome is reserved for only the most awesome as judged by me which is all that matters, I now, hereby, therefore, induct The Game into the hallowed Hall of Extra-Awesome. So let it be written... so let it be done. (cue the London Philharmonic - Hallelujah) (cue Liz Phair - HWC)
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Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2012 by Moon Donkey
Format: Hardcover
This book is what you make of it. You can read this one of three ways: 1) Narrative - Neil walks you through a semi-abridged version of his experiences in the pickup community and tells a great campfire story about his conquests in the dating world. The story is entertaining from a Tucker Max Lite angle. It lacks a bit in some areas that could continue to be fleshed out, and I wasn't wholly impressed with the ending. 2) Field Manual - Broad and introductory tactics for pickup are discussed and deployed. You'll have to weave through pages of filler to find it, but the tactics are straight forward and their proper implementation is discussed within the text. If you were looking for an understanding of how to get started in pick-up without the typical dry self-help reading materials? This is it 3) Psychology book - The pop-culture idea behind pick-up is developing a persona to hide behind in order to attract the attention of people you desire to have the attention of. The book discusses the hows and whys and references other works from greater and lesser psychologists of the modern era. The semi-disappointing ending surfaces to show that development of a persona is insufficient for possessing a fulfilling relationship. Really - what I saw this book as, is framework for personal Renaissance and rediscovery of self. If you want to attract the attention of a partner at a specific level, become what that level of person is looking for. Every day isn't Halloween and peacocking will lose novelty after awhile, but a strong, solid, firm foundation as a person will take you further than any neg or line will. Then again, a neg isn't likely to hurt your chances either.... If you're looking for something to help you get started down a personal path to greatness - this is a suggested reading material. If you're looking for an entertaining way to read on how to meet women, this book can probably pull that off for you as well. If you're looking for something to be angry at and disagree profusely with...until you realize that removing suggestion from date requests and not buying the lady who expects one, a drink... shouldn't work, but does...and you've been victim to it too... this is your book. If you want a humorous story about things you wish you had the stones to do in a relationship but never could muster the courage? Get a Tucker Max book.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2014 by dPrimmy
By the end of the book, The Game comes across as a giant warning against itself. The book's players - all of whom begin their journey as social outcasts, end up even more alienated and screwed up than when they went in. The leader of the "pick up artists" (artist being a generous generous term), the cringingly monikered "Mystery", spends most of the book crying and trying to kill himself, interspersed with brief bouts of "happiness" while he is running around clubs accosting women with super annoying, if not downright creepy pick up lines like "do you believe in spells?" As a self help book, it is horrifying and surely a step down the evolutionary ladder; as a story, it is compelling and thoroughly enjoyable. The central tenant of the book is the idea that charisma, wit and social confidence can be learned. This is a heartening idea, and one that has been jumped on by the hundreds of introverts around the world who sign up for Mystery's "workshops" and populate the multitude of internet forums on the subject. The solution posed in The Game however doesn't seem to be about learning to accept who you are and to be yourself in social situations (though this does eventually happen to the protagonist), but rather is about memorising a series of lines and routines and dodgy magic tricks with which to bombard your "target" until they are so dazed by your relentless "charm" that they give you their number. Though the techniques described in the book purport a wealth of pop psychology and sleazy pseudo science like hypnosis, the real secret to the "success" of the pick up artists (which in The Game seems largely confined to getting numbers, as very few of them ever seem to progress past an awkward second date) appears to be in the sheer numbers of women approached, which has the dual benefit of getting the guys over their fear of rejection and makes good use of the law of averages. The "negging" technique (whereby you charmingly insult someone to lower their self esteem hoping they come crawling to you for validation) no doubt works a charm on an insecure enough person, and if lucky, could be the genesis of a wonderfully abusive relationship based on dishonesty, emotional withholding and possession. Interestingly, author Neil Strauss is completely self aware, and out of all his "co-artists" appears to be the only one to retain some perspective on the destructive nature of the lifestyle. The book is refreshingly critical of itself and Neil (or Style as he dubs himself, just beating Mystery in the contest for sleaziest nickname) provides a genuinely fascinating commentary on himself as he transitions from frightened social mouse, to misogynist predator, and finally a healthier blend somewhere in the middle. By the end of the book he finds the confidence to be himself and as his eventual girlfriend points out (after his myriad of techniques fail spectacularly and even push her away) "all the things I like about you are traits you had before becoming a pick up artist". The best thing to come out of The Game appears to be the community formed online, which is eventually transformed into face to face relationships. It provides lonely men with friends and a group to belong to, despite the fact it is based largely on misogyny and is unsurprisingly devoid of women. The second half of the book, when a core group of pick up artists all move into a house together, is riveting. The rivalries, backstabbing, miscommunication and awkwardness provide an amazing look at what happens when you transform a chat room into reality. If Big Brother sourced its contestants exclusively online, I'm sure they'd rate higher. The best selling success of The Game has led to surely the creepiest new genre on youtube, where aspiring pick up artists covertly film themselves accosting women with the very same lines used in the book, and then break it down and "analyse" what went wrong. It is difficult to decide which is more uncomfortable, the videos themselves, or the endless comment threads where more "analysis" takes place, and gleeful messages of condolence are left. When numbers are given out it often bears an uncanny resemblance to the scene in Cool Runnings where a passerby gives the busker a dollar to shut up. The book itself is a page turner. I read the whole thing in two sittings and really enjoyed it. If anything, it's a fascinating insight into what happens when a flash of mad confidence rips through the internet and it's denizens are dumped unceremoniously into the cesspool of actual humanity.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2013 by L Marsh
Format: Hardcover
I just finished reading this book and I have to say, I am eager to start on this review. That's how good the book was. First Impression: When I first saw the book, I had expected it to be primarily focussed on how to pick up women. The first chapter of the book does not set up the reader to expect this at all; it starts off like a story. After reading a few chapters: This book was starting to introduce not only Neil Strauss, more frequently referred to as "Style", but also some of the pickup artist rules and strategies while still managing to keep me intrigued by the writing and the plot. The book isn't a how-to guide, it's a story that tells the tale of two years worth of experiences of the author, and captures the reader's attention while doing it. Throughout the story though, there is a lot of "game" related ideas strewn throughout the book, enough so that a lot of information can be pulled out of the book. After reading the book: I have to admit that the book was not a regret to buy. It appealed to me more as an epic recollection of that time of his life than as a step by step guide to meeting women. If that is what your primary purpose is for buying this book, then buy it and simply look through the glossary for the names of the Pick Up Artists [PUAs] that have coined the terms in there, or read the last part of the Acknowledgements section to find out who the pickup artists are, and then buy their material. There is no better advice I can give you. Closing Remarks: I appreciated this book a lot more than I would have if I hadn't already been exposed to self-help programs by one of the PUAs mentioned in the book. It really is a great read and has given me some material to try out on women I'd like to meet. It also introduces the various styles of pickup as propagated by the different PUAs such as NLP, Cocky & Funny, etc, for some insight into where to start learning. Most of all though, this book was a page turner that I really did not want to put down. The writing was interesting, Neil's life during the time in the book sounds a hell of a lot of exciting even if it's possible that he might have written it to seem more interesting than it actually was. This book is definitely not for anyone below 18 years though. I'm adamant about that. All in all, a great read that I would highly recommend to any male.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2011 by Brad Chattergoon
Format: Hardcover
The Game is an engaging look at a subculture few people know exists (or did before this book came out) --that of "pick-up artists." This does not refer to just any single men who are trying to meet women, but men who have made this their primary goal in life. The characters in this book have formed something close to a cult around the goal of meeting beautiful women. Strangely enough, much of the story ends up being about male bonding and competition between men, as many of the characters end up spending more time with their fellow pick-up artists than with women. Neil Strauss portrays himself as a not especially attractive man who has never had much success with women. Then he meets a strange, charismatic person known as Mystery, who gives expensive workshops in the art, and his life is turned around. The way this book is written, indeed the way the entire world of these guys is described, is along the lines of self-help seminars. That is, the Anthony Robbins type scenario where the author or seminar leader inevitably describes his unbelievable transformation from failure to success. Considering Strauss's prior background as a writer who had interviewed celebrities, we might question if he was really the social nonentity he claims. Yet, this is not really important, for The Game is not itself a guide that teaches how to pick up women, but a fairly critical expose of the whole racket. Indeed, men reading this book should probably think twice or more before joining the ranks of the pick-up artists, who turn out to be a rather neurotic and dysfunctional group. At the beginning, we find out that the suave Mystery, called by Strauss and others "the greatest pick-up artist in the world" has had a serious mental breakdown. The rest of the book takes place at earlier times, so we know that things do not turn out very well for Mystery and his followers, who end up living in a Hollywood mansion devoted to their favorite past-time. This household turns into something out of reality TV, with a hostile, paranoid group of people trying to outmaneuver each other. What The Game reveals about human psychology is quite interesting. Many lost souls gravitated to the circle of pick-up artists, giving up virtually everything else in their lives. They did achieve some short term success using the various gimmicks taught by Mystery and others. Basically, what they teach is similar to sales techniques. Apparently, having any kind of confident and rehearsed "approach" can be effective in meeting new people. Yet, despite the emphasis on self-confidence and the self-improvement jargon used by everyone, the overall lives of the participants did not improve; closer to the opposite was the case. What caused Strauss to ultimately become disillusioned was the realization that what made him a great pick-up artist did not help him establish any kind of meaningful relationships. As Mystery himself laments at one point, "I'm the greatest pick-up artist in the world, so why don't I have a girlfriend?" To which Strauss astutely replies, "Maybe because you're the greatest pick-up artist in the world." Another strange thing about this group is how members had practically no interests apart from their obsession. Finally, as often happens with groups, the men became increasingly competitive with each other, dividing into hostile factions. A few, such as Mystery, turned quite paranoid. The Game is an entertaining book to read. Strauss has interesting encounters with a variety of people, including Tom Cruise, Courtney Love and Heidi Fleiss (the Hollywood Madam). More than anything, the book is a cautionary tale about what can happen to people whose lives become seriously out of balance.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2006 by Larry Christopher