Livin' in Joe's World: Unauthorized, Uncut, and Unreal: The Memoirs of Joe Patane from the Miami Cast of MTV's The Real World - Softcover

Fame, babes, free rent in a multimillion dollar house on Miami Beach--who wouldn't jump at the offer? Joe Patane did, and with a memoir--whose first chapter is entitled, "What Possessed Me?"--he clearly lived to regret it. As one of the cast members of MTV's The Real World, Joe had cameras tracking his every move, microphones recording his every conversation, crewmembers brandishing waivers at his every acquaintance. Considering the circumstances--and the promises extended by the jacket copy--Livin' in Joe's World isn't quite the hatchet job one might expect. In fact, Joe himself emerges from the entire experience with a number of the usual homilies about being true to oneself, making the most out of life, daring to take risks, and so on and so on. Enough already with the moral uplift, one wants to say, and tell us some more about the Mike-Michelle-waitress shower scene. Frankly, it comes as no shock to learn that MTV producers engage in creative editing or that they manipulate events to make things more entertaining for viewers; anyone who's ever watched The Real World knows it's about as "real" as an episode of Three's Company. The true appeal of Livin' in Joe's World lies elsewhere--in learning what it felt like to become a real live lab rat spinning around in a wheel. For anyone who's a closet voyeur--and who isn't?--Livin' in Joe's World exerts the same queasy fascination as the TV show itself, and once started, it's hard to put down. As for his life post-MTV, Joe's is a nice enough world, but I wouldn't want to live there. Not even for free rent. --Mary Park