By J. Roger Wood

Arizona Daily Wildcat

As a member of the UA Class of 1994, I can say that "real life" sometimes scares me. Out of that common fear, we can all laugh at Dan Zevin's coffee-table paperback, Entry-Level Life: A Complete Guide to Masquerading as a Member of the Real World.

Entry-Level Life, a humorous volume packed with quizzes, housing guides, fake resumes, charts, maps and quirky photo illustrations, begins with a message to us "Insta Grown-ups": "So you're out of college! Who knows? Maybe you even graduated." From that poignant observation, so continues Entry-Level Life through six fun-filled chapters.

Zevin's strength throughout the book is his uncanny way of catching hold of those common insecurities and somehow making them sound funny. From memo-writing to deciphering real-estate classifieds, Zevin forgets our differences for a moment to kick up that nervous giggle in all of us.

As a work of humor, Entry-Level Life certainly succeeds, but at times tries a little too hard to include every possible aspect of the real world. Some is funny, but overkill can turn into the most frightening of experiences. Some pages become cluttered with too much: a few paragraphs of text, a map or two, a photo and a chart of some type.

While neither an intellectual nor a "Now' you've graduated, go conquer the world" type of challenge, Entry-Level Life has some laughs and ultimately helps to pass the many "Pop Quizzes" in the book and to finally answer the begging question, "Are you living in the real world?" If you answer "yes" to any of these, go out and buy Entry-Level Life and read up on real life before it's too late!

ù Does staying up late enough to watch Saturday Night Live now seem as hip as staying out late enough to miss Saturday Night Live?

ù Have you ever purchased a paper-towel rack?

ù Have you increased the amount of money you withdraw from the cash machine?

ù Do you keep the operating instructions for mechanical appliances in a special folder?

ù Do you listen to National Public Radio?

ù Do you buy coffee in bags instead of cans?

ù Have you ever made a special trip to the post office to purchase "nice" stamps?

Entry-Level Life: A Complete Guide to Masquerading as a Member of the Real World by Dan Zevin is available from Bantam April 15 for $8.95. Read Next Article