Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way is a fictional recount of Bruce Campbell's misadventures after landing a major supporting role in an A-list Hollywood movie. After over 20 years as a Sci-Fi B-Movie king, Bruce Campbell wins a part in "Let's Make Love", a mainstream romantic comedy directed by Mike Nichols and starring Richard Gere and Renee Zellweiger. While researching his part, working to develop his character, and meeting with Richard Gere on the film, Bruce ends up embroiled in a series of episodic misadventures with an assortment of strange characters. He finds himself at different locales all over the US, somehow at odds with Colin Powell's personal security staff, a group of Southern gentlemen, eco-terrorists, sleazy studio executives, and bitter former friends. Meanwhile, B-Movie elements seme to keep creeping into "Let's Make Love". which was supposed to be a by-the-numbers mainstream romantic comedy.

While the events of the book are highly improbable, it never crosses the line into Sci-Fi or Fantasy. So why review it for a Science Fiction site? Because MLTBCW is that rarest of specimens: a mainstream book for the Sci-Fi community. Sure, most of its laughs are universal, but a Sci-Fi geek is much better-prepared to get the scores of B-Movie references. Bruce Campbell really seems to understand his fans, his career, his celebrity, and and his place in the whole Hollywood landscape. The book succeeds because he's a witty guy, and his down-to-earth perspective is refreshing. He's not afraid to poke fun at himself, his fans, and the other celebrities he's thrown into his book. There are a number of bizarre, hilarious, morphed images throughout of the book; literary sticklers might see their presence as the tactic of a desperate author, but I found that these often provided the biggest laughs.

It may not be as deep or even as funny as a Nick Hornby mainstream comedy; the story is not quite as intricately layered as a James Clavell or Neal Stephenson novel, but this book isn't aspiring to be "High Fidelity" or "The System of the World." Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way is good entertainment, loaded with funny gags - some witty, some low-brow. I highly recommend it.

Two warnings about reading this book in public:
1. You'll probably laugh out loud.
2. You're reading a book with Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way on the cover. Remember, not everyone in the world has heard of Bruce Campbell; not everyone will know that the title is intended to be funny.

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