Reality Check – The Situation

Thoughts

Going into this book review, I hadn’t completed a book in a couple of weeks. For personal reasons from my own motivation to energy and the summer down the shore. There’s been races, parties, trips, travel, and injuries in-between all of that. I’ve had my own sports injury that I’ve been dealing with the last couple of months, and it’s just been wearing me out. Picking up a book was the last thing on my mind, but I needed something to help with the daily commutes into NYC.

I actually tried to read and get through the Sam Walton story, a book about Sam Walton the founder of Walmart. It was long and a good story, it wasn’t drawing me in with enough energy to get excited to read it the next day. So, a few days after deciding I wasn’t going to complete that one right now, I picked up one I got for Christmas, Reality Check.

I’m really glad I did.

I devoured this book over maybe the course of like 10 days. Those 10 days weren’t consecutive, but if they were maybe it’d be like 4. Mike, paints a perfect picture throughout each of the chapters dealing with every aspect of his life, in a timeline that runs parallel to the Jersey Shore. This book felt a little close to home, not only because I’m a Jersey native, but that he grew up and referenced many of the towns that I grew up in as well. Not to mention I do love a “fuck your life up and get it back together again” story. When I read anything like this, it helps me put my problems in perspective and think if someone can go through all of that and come out on top, my problems aren’t so bad.

Mike recounts his time and stories on the Jersey Shore, but as the title of the book might allude too, gives some backstory that I honestly had no idea about until much later in life, during his days in the news for fraud charges and finding out about a drug problem. Much of the book is focused on his time during the filming of the show, and his struggle with his opiate addiction. I always viewed Mike as the a-hole on the TV show or the “villain” you could say. Thinking back to everything now, and even when JS Vacation was on, I liked that Mike so much more. I had no clue that here this guy was struggling with something so strong all those years.

It’s kind of crazy to think back to those times while the show was on and just how big Mike got during that era which again alludes to his presence even on today’s show. There’s a bunch of ups and downs, and I felt so bad for Mike through each chapter hitting one wall after the next and losing it all. I think if anything it shows that even a guy from central jersey can make it big, if you set your mind to it.

The book made me start a rewatch of the OG Jersey Shore on Paramount Plus, so if that’s not a good recommendation, I don’t know what is… My review might be biased, but I think it’s worth the read to change your view of BDS, and experience how much he went through to get to where he is today.