Bad Behaviour was difficult to read at first. Sheila O’Flanagan’s style of writing seemed clunky and her characters were horrible. But I stuck with it and I’m glad I did because despite a disappointing beginning, I ended up really liking it.
The clunkiness stopped bothering me after about five chapters and there were nearly forty chapters altogether. And O’Flanagan’s style probably isn’t that clunky really. All authors will have their own personal style, and when you come upon a writer with a new style or at least a style that’s different from the last few books you read, it can take you a while to get used to it. You could argue that I wasn’t so much getting used to the style as getting anaesthetised to it but anaesthetic really isn’t such a bad thing. My boyfriend had an anaesthetic when he had his operation and he actually ended up having quite a nice time during the operation and now he’s all better and much happier (and much better at football though he was brilliant to start with) and he probably wouldn’t be quite as happy if he had a memory of complete and total agony during the operation. So once I was anesthetised to the style I enjoyed reading the book and after a while the style just didn’t hurt me anymore. I actually liked it and a bit of clunkiness can actually add to the comedy scenes.
There was still a problem with the characters though. Most of them just weren’t very nice people, and that too can make a book difficult to read. Darcey, the heroine, comes across as completely cold and unfriendly. As you read the book, you learn that she isn’t like that really, and if she is occasionally a little bit reserved, you can kind of see why. For about the first third of the book, I really disliked Darcey. It’s great she’s so good at her job but she didn’t seem to care about people as human beings at all. Maybe it would have been better if O’Flanagan had made it clear earlier how nice Darcey really was. The book was mostly from her point of view. It’s possible to show a character behaving in a cold and unfriendly manner, whilst at the same time making it clear that she’s lovely and caring underneath it all. This was something that came across very strongly later on but I wish it had happened sooner.
Also, Darcey did come over as a bit of a slut. She travels to different countries as part of her job and she seems to have a shag buddy in every country. Darcey would prefer me to describe it as ‘sex with no strings attached’ but isn’t that exactly what a shag buddy is? I don’t think there’s anything wrong as such with wanting sex but not wanting a relationship – considering Darcey’s relationship experience, you can’t really blame her. But the problem I have it is that it does cast doubt on her ability to do her job. We’re supposed to believe she’s brilliant at her job, travelling to strange places and getting people to sign contracts. But when we find out she’s actually got a bloke in every country, you have to wonder, did she really get those contracts through her brilliant people skills, or was it more because of who she’s shagging?
There are also sections of the book which are from the point of view of her former best friend Nieve, who stole Darcey’s boyfriend Aidan the night he was going to propose to her. Nieve is just a totally self-centred cow who believes money is the root of all happiness. It’s just very difficult to like her at all. Maybe around the middle of the book you might develop some sympathy for her for being so clueless about what life should really be like, and definitely at the end it was impossible not to feel for her. But it’s a bit late by then. And it really annoyed me that the character of Mary, who wasn’t a big character at all but who did take care of Nieve when she needed someone, totally disappeared as soon as she’d played her role in the plot. If they’d at least stayed in contact, it would have helped me to think more positively of Nieve.
Aidan, like all fictional Aidans, is the unreliable type, but unlike the other Aidans I’ve read about he doesn’t have a very good reason for his behaviour towards Darcey. He didn’t seem that bad a person, he’s quite weak and useless and I usually really go for that a man. But things were never really quite resolved for him. There’s another main character called Neil who comes to work with Darcey, and she spends most of the book wondering whether she likes either of them, and if so, how much and in what way. Neil does at least seem a lot more reliable than Aidan, but likeable? He seems a bit boring to me but in some ways he was probably the most convincing character in the book. I’m sure there are loads of people around like Neil.
Darcey’s friend Anna was maybe the worst of the main characters. She’s very nice but she seemed to snap back and forth quite unconvincingly between being Darcey’s friend and Darcey’s HR manager. I’m sure in the job world that sort of relationship can be quite complicated, and it might have made an interesting story/subplot if O’Flanagan had tried to develop it. But she didn’t. And I have to say, I was actually on Darcey’s side when Darcey told her a secret about her past. Anna was hurt that Darcey hadn’t told her before. But why should she? Why should she tell her friend about everything that’s ever happened to her? Anna really seemed more like a plot device than a character most of the time but she did seem like a very likeable plot device.
The plot took a while to get going, but once it had, it was very satisfying and involving with all sorts of strange twists and turns. Parts of it were very exciting, and until very near the end, I not only had no idea how things were going to end up for Darcey and Nieve and the others, I wasn’t even sure how I wanted things to end up. Usually, when I read a book, I know pretty early on who I want the heroine to end up with (if anyone). But in this book, I just wasn’t sure. However, by the end, I was completely happy with how things turned out. I thought it was amazing the way O’Flanagan could have written so much about her characters, yet have given so little away. And it was all so compelling, wondering what was going to happen, and so convincing when it finally did. If O’Flanagan had cut the first few chapters, maybe I’d have given the book four stars. It’s all so cleverly done.
O’Flanagan chose to give quite a lot of detail about the work Darcey and Nieve do, which might have been interesting for some people, but I found it rather boring and I had trouble following it. I’m not an office person, I never will be an office person even if I do end up working in an office, and it just seemed like a totally alien world and a terminally dull one. I didn’t really care about Darcey’s and Nieve’s jobs. I was happy for them that they were doing something they loved but I don’t really care about what people are, I’m more interested in who they are. There’s a whole lot more to people than what they’re prepared to do for money. Well, unless you’re Nieve, that is.
Wednesday 30 December 2009
Wednesday 23 December 2009
We Need to Talk about Kevin Keegan (Giles Smith)****
(yes okay, my football references are slightly out of date, I did write this review months ago)
Giles Smith is a journalist who seems to have had a regular football column somewhere or other. In this book, he collected some of his best work from 2005-2007 and put them all together. None of the articles are particularly serious in style – even when Smith starts talking about something serious he soon meanders off-topic (like I do sometimes, only funnier) and starts examining the strangest situations, whatever pops into his head. The articles are all very funny but many of then do have an underlying seriousness. While Smith’s Guide to Tapping Up is a hilarious read, at the same time it does make you think about how serious a problem it is. I wonder if Smith, as a Chelsea fan, can still see the funny side.
Even if he can’t, at least Manchester City are still ripe for the (piss)-taking. Joleon Lescott, formerly of Everton, seemed more than happy with his current side until Moneybags Man Shitty took an interest. Suddenly Lescott was doing all he could to make sure Everton wanted to get rid of him - although he stopped short of taking the Darren Bent route of advertising his availability on Twitter.
Perhaps Smith could even make the Emmanuel Adebayor-goal celebration situation amusing. I admit, when he scored that goal, I wished he was still with Arsenal. Seconds later, when he arrived at the other end of the pitch having raced at a speed never before seen from him on a football pitch, I was so glad that the unsporting twat was nothing to do with my team anymore. Man Shitty – you’re welcome to him. And if you want to see him run even faster than that, get one of the other clubs to offer him higher wages than you’re giving him. Then watch him go.
On second thoughts, I’m not sure that even Giles Smith could make that sound funny.
Smith’s articles also include imaginary football-related documents such as what the Uefa Pro Licence course might consist of, an overview of the different seating arrangements that might exist at the new Wembley Stadium, and a list of hobbies footballers could take up if disaster struck and a power cut meant and they couldn’t use their games consoles anymore.
There is an equally imaginary letter from the FA to a rather depleted England squad, with details of the itinerary for their summer tour of the USA. We read the diary of Fabio Capello after he becomes England manager and the inner thoughts of currently injured Aston Villa winger Stewart Downing on being the only member of the England squad without a Wag (he makes up for it later by finding a double-barrelled one). There are also many discussions, written with great seriousness, of unlikely but intriguing situations such as what would happen if Alex Ferguson and Harry Redknapp had a fight. (As long as they didn’t make it a topless fight I’d be happy with either outcome.)
Reality TV also gets a regular mention – although any footballer who appears on I’m a Celebrity, Strictly Come Dancing or Dancing on Ice is just asking to be ridiculed. As for those who are desperate enough to appear on more than one of them… well, they make the Wags on Wags’ Boutique look camera shy. I would love to go on Wags’ Boutique. I wouldn’t recognise a hair extension if it slapped me round the face (my hair doesn’t need extending, it gets long all by itself) but I would have been a great help when they were wondering what the third letter of ‘silhouette’ was. And while my “What does ‘high street’ mean?” might have filled my fellow Wags with despair, at least I know how many players there are in a football team.
I wasn’t so keen on Craig Bellamy’s Guide to Hitting People with Golf Clubs (why mention his one non-redeeming feature and ignore all the good stuff, like… anyway, moving on) and there was rather too much about England and not enough about Wales, and Smith really doesn’t know a thing about opera.
In one article, he claims that the cheapest seats at the opera are £75. As someone who has never paid more than £30 for a ticket(and rarely pays more than £10) I have to wonder which opera houses he’s been going to. At many venues, even the maximum price is under £75. Could you see a Premiership football match for £10 a time? Even at Hull City it’s £15.
In some ways it was probably more fun to read the articles in their original format, rationing yourself to one a week or however often Smith published them, but even in the age of the Internet, it might be time-consuming – and expensive – to find all the archived versions. So it’s great to have such easy access to so many of them in this volume. It is not a good book to read in one sitting - in order to enjoy each article properly, you don’t want to read too many at a time. So maybe it’s not one to take to the beach but I found it ideal for reading in the bath.
Giles Smith is a journalist who seems to have had a regular football column somewhere or other. In this book, he collected some of his best work from 2005-2007 and put them all together. None of the articles are particularly serious in style – even when Smith starts talking about something serious he soon meanders off-topic (like I do sometimes, only funnier) and starts examining the strangest situations, whatever pops into his head. The articles are all very funny but many of then do have an underlying seriousness. While Smith’s Guide to Tapping Up is a hilarious read, at the same time it does make you think about how serious a problem it is. I wonder if Smith, as a Chelsea fan, can still see the funny side.
Even if he can’t, at least Manchester City are still ripe for the (piss)-taking. Joleon Lescott, formerly of Everton, seemed more than happy with his current side until Moneybags Man Shitty took an interest. Suddenly Lescott was doing all he could to make sure Everton wanted to get rid of him - although he stopped short of taking the Darren Bent route of advertising his availability on Twitter.
Perhaps Smith could even make the Emmanuel Adebayor-goal celebration situation amusing. I admit, when he scored that goal, I wished he was still with Arsenal. Seconds later, when he arrived at the other end of the pitch having raced at a speed never before seen from him on a football pitch, I was so glad that the unsporting twat was nothing to do with my team anymore. Man Shitty – you’re welcome to him. And if you want to see him run even faster than that, get one of the other clubs to offer him higher wages than you’re giving him. Then watch him go.
On second thoughts, I’m not sure that even Giles Smith could make that sound funny.
Smith’s articles also include imaginary football-related documents such as what the Uefa Pro Licence course might consist of, an overview of the different seating arrangements that might exist at the new Wembley Stadium, and a list of hobbies footballers could take up if disaster struck and a power cut meant and they couldn’t use their games consoles anymore.
There is an equally imaginary letter from the FA to a rather depleted England squad, with details of the itinerary for their summer tour of the USA. We read the diary of Fabio Capello after he becomes England manager and the inner thoughts of currently injured Aston Villa winger Stewart Downing on being the only member of the England squad without a Wag (he makes up for it later by finding a double-barrelled one). There are also many discussions, written with great seriousness, of unlikely but intriguing situations such as what would happen if Alex Ferguson and Harry Redknapp had a fight. (As long as they didn’t make it a topless fight I’d be happy with either outcome.)
Reality TV also gets a regular mention – although any footballer who appears on I’m a Celebrity, Strictly Come Dancing or Dancing on Ice is just asking to be ridiculed. As for those who are desperate enough to appear on more than one of them… well, they make the Wags on Wags’ Boutique look camera shy. I would love to go on Wags’ Boutique. I wouldn’t recognise a hair extension if it slapped me round the face (my hair doesn’t need extending, it gets long all by itself) but I would have been a great help when they were wondering what the third letter of ‘silhouette’ was. And while my “What does ‘high street’ mean?” might have filled my fellow Wags with despair, at least I know how many players there are in a football team.
I wasn’t so keen on Craig Bellamy’s Guide to Hitting People with Golf Clubs (why mention his one non-redeeming feature and ignore all the good stuff, like… anyway, moving on) and there was rather too much about England and not enough about Wales, and Smith really doesn’t know a thing about opera.
In one article, he claims that the cheapest seats at the opera are £75. As someone who has never paid more than £30 for a ticket(and rarely pays more than £10) I have to wonder which opera houses he’s been going to. At many venues, even the maximum price is under £75. Could you see a Premiership football match for £10 a time? Even at Hull City it’s £15.
In some ways it was probably more fun to read the articles in their original format, rationing yourself to one a week or however often Smith published them, but even in the age of the Internet, it might be time-consuming – and expensive – to find all the archived versions. So it’s great to have such easy access to so many of them in this volume. It is not a good book to read in one sitting - in order to enjoy each article properly, you don’t want to read too many at a time. So maybe it’s not one to take to the beach but I found it ideal for reading in the bath.
Thursday 17 December 2009
A Wag's Tale: The Beautiful Game (Claire Challis and Fabulous)****
Ex-Wag Fabulous joins with writer Claire Challis to tell you what being a Wag is really like. Fabulous of course is a pseudonym (and for all I know Claire Challis is too) but the book doesn’t tell you who Fabulous is and unfortunately I can’t guess. I don’t think it’s even made clear that Fabulous is female. It’s certainly an adjective more often applied to themselves by men …
The Beautiful Game is inspired by real life, but the characters in it are fictional. So I can only assume the resemblance between protagonist Louise and Coleen Rooney; chief Wag Tara and Victoria Beckham, and glamour girl Pattii and Abi Clancy are purely coincidental. I’ve spoken to Abi and I think she’s at least a million times nicer than Pattii but Pattii is kind of like how I expected Abi would be like. I have no idea who the fourth Wag, former actress Jodie is. Possibly she’s Cheryl Cole, but Jodie wasn’t a singer and Gary is far too nice to be Cheryl’s husband (I won’t dignify him with a name but he knows who he is).
The title is quite clever – as well as being literally both a tale about a Wag and a tale that was partly written by a Wag, a wagtail is also a type of bird – and so is a Wag. The ‘Beautiful Game’ part is good too – not only is this one of the clichéd terms for football, it’s also about Wags playing their own game: the game of being beautiful. It’s a very clever title (so it was probably Claire Challis, not Fabulous, who thought of it).
The Beautiful Game is full of action all the way through with a few dull clothes bits. You see the girls going shopping, getting discounts and free clothes (completely ridiculous, I’d never let a shop give me free clothes especially not if I was filthy rich). You see them having to dress their best every time they leave the house (fuck that, why should I bother, it’s not even as though they don’t want to see me looking a mess). Then they wear high heels for football matches and I’ve said in another post what I think of that. The other side of things involves them getting photographed wherever they go and suffering the indignity of their husbands and boyfriends going out and getting drunk and being caught with other women… okay maybe Jodie is Cheryl Cole.
But whilst there was never a dull moment, everything went by a bit too quickly. All too often, Louise found herself in a horrible situation, not knowing what she’s going to do – which is something we really like to see in chick lit heroines – only for us to find in the next chapter that three months had passed and all we know is that ‘everything sorted itself out eventually’. Maybe this is a realistic interpretation of Wag life, if not any life – a lot of the time, when something horrible has happened and your boyfriend is no longer speaking to you (I can’t say I’ve ever had this problem, with me it’s the problem was when they were all trying to talk to me at the same time) the truth is, nothing else does happen except that you keep on trying to talk to each other, a little bit more each time, and eventually things do change from stony silence to being back to normal.
That’s the realistic way of doing it but it doesn’t work so well in fiction. I like my drama drawn out as long as possible (and actually now I think about it that does also apply to real life). If Challis and Fabulous had tried drawing out some of the drama, they could have ended up with several novels, one for each plotline. The first book would have been about Louise first becoming a Wag. It does start off very nicely, with Louise feeling very lost and unsure and alone, and having lots of trouble because people don’t believe she’s Adam Jones’ Wag. But by the next chapter, she seems completely comfortable with it. Maybe Wagicity is something you do adapt to quickly, but there is so much potential in the idea of a new Wag struggling to fit in with her new lifestyle.
Later on, there are issues with Adam going out with the lads and getting drunk. That could take up a whole book. Jodie’s fiancé Gary (as we find out on Page 1 for some reason, even though this doesn’t happen until near the end of the book) is arrested on the News hours before their wedding. It probably should have taken a whole novel for Jodie to agree to take him back. I won’t spoil the book by mentioning all the little storylines, but Challis and Fabulous could have made a whole series, and I am quite disappointed they didn’t. The dialogue is convincing with just enough conventional Wag/footballer talk to make you laugh without stopping you from taking the situation seriously. The characters too are as Waggish as could be, but apart from Pattii they are all clearly very nice people. And although everything that was in the book was very exciting and enthralling. I just wanted more detail.
And another thing. This actually annoyed me quite a lot. At the beginning of the book, Adam and Louise move from Cardiff to Leeds. They met at school. Louise’s family lives in Cardiff. So as far as I can see, Adam and Louise are Welsh. I can see why Louise might have wanted to move to Cardiff to be with Adam, but not why her parents would go too. Also, Adam is even called Adam Jones, and you don’t get more Welsh than that (except maybe if he was called Rhys Jones). Not that there are any players called Jones who play for Wales at the moment but… never mind. My point is, it sounds like they’re Welsh. Doesn’t it?
But then I started wondering: how come Adam isn’t a Welsh international? He’s good enough to join a Premiership side, so he must have been considered. At the very least, he must have played for the Under-21s (Louise is twenty, so I’m assuming Adam is about the same - about half the current Wales squad are twenty or under). There are some really crap players who get to play for the Under-21s like Wrexham players, so Adam ought to have played for them too. Then Adam got picked for England and I was so annoyed. Maybe he was born in England and then he moved to Wales, and he made the decision himself that he would rather represent England, which isn’t unreasonable I suppose. But this isn’t made clear and I was really really disappointed. And he was much sexier when I imagined him having a Welsh accent.
The Beautiful Game is inspired by real life, but the characters in it are fictional. So I can only assume the resemblance between protagonist Louise and Coleen Rooney; chief Wag Tara and Victoria Beckham, and glamour girl Pattii and Abi Clancy are purely coincidental. I’ve spoken to Abi and I think she’s at least a million times nicer than Pattii but Pattii is kind of like how I expected Abi would be like. I have no idea who the fourth Wag, former actress Jodie is. Possibly she’s Cheryl Cole, but Jodie wasn’t a singer and Gary is far too nice to be Cheryl’s husband (I won’t dignify him with a name but he knows who he is).
The title is quite clever – as well as being literally both a tale about a Wag and a tale that was partly written by a Wag, a wagtail is also a type of bird – and so is a Wag. The ‘Beautiful Game’ part is good too – not only is this one of the clichéd terms for football, it’s also about Wags playing their own game: the game of being beautiful. It’s a very clever title (so it was probably Claire Challis, not Fabulous, who thought of it).
The Beautiful Game is full of action all the way through with a few dull clothes bits. You see the girls going shopping, getting discounts and free clothes (completely ridiculous, I’d never let a shop give me free clothes especially not if I was filthy rich). You see them having to dress their best every time they leave the house (fuck that, why should I bother, it’s not even as though they don’t want to see me looking a mess). Then they wear high heels for football matches and I’ve said in another post what I think of that. The other side of things involves them getting photographed wherever they go and suffering the indignity of their husbands and boyfriends going out and getting drunk and being caught with other women… okay maybe Jodie is Cheryl Cole.
But whilst there was never a dull moment, everything went by a bit too quickly. All too often, Louise found herself in a horrible situation, not knowing what she’s going to do – which is something we really like to see in chick lit heroines – only for us to find in the next chapter that three months had passed and all we know is that ‘everything sorted itself out eventually’. Maybe this is a realistic interpretation of Wag life, if not any life – a lot of the time, when something horrible has happened and your boyfriend is no longer speaking to you (I can’t say I’ve ever had this problem, with me it’s the problem was when they were all trying to talk to me at the same time) the truth is, nothing else does happen except that you keep on trying to talk to each other, a little bit more each time, and eventually things do change from stony silence to being back to normal.
That’s the realistic way of doing it but it doesn’t work so well in fiction. I like my drama drawn out as long as possible (and actually now I think about it that does also apply to real life). If Challis and Fabulous had tried drawing out some of the drama, they could have ended up with several novels, one for each plotline. The first book would have been about Louise first becoming a Wag. It does start off very nicely, with Louise feeling very lost and unsure and alone, and having lots of trouble because people don’t believe she’s Adam Jones’ Wag. But by the next chapter, she seems completely comfortable with it. Maybe Wagicity is something you do adapt to quickly, but there is so much potential in the idea of a new Wag struggling to fit in with her new lifestyle.
Later on, there are issues with Adam going out with the lads and getting drunk. That could take up a whole book. Jodie’s fiancé Gary (as we find out on Page 1 for some reason, even though this doesn’t happen until near the end of the book) is arrested on the News hours before their wedding. It probably should have taken a whole novel for Jodie to agree to take him back. I won’t spoil the book by mentioning all the little storylines, but Challis and Fabulous could have made a whole series, and I am quite disappointed they didn’t. The dialogue is convincing with just enough conventional Wag/footballer talk to make you laugh without stopping you from taking the situation seriously. The characters too are as Waggish as could be, but apart from Pattii they are all clearly very nice people. And although everything that was in the book was very exciting and enthralling. I just wanted more detail.
And another thing. This actually annoyed me quite a lot. At the beginning of the book, Adam and Louise move from Cardiff to Leeds. They met at school. Louise’s family lives in Cardiff. So as far as I can see, Adam and Louise are Welsh. I can see why Louise might have wanted to move to Cardiff to be with Adam, but not why her parents would go too. Also, Adam is even called Adam Jones, and you don’t get more Welsh than that (except maybe if he was called Rhys Jones). Not that there are any players called Jones who play for Wales at the moment but… never mind. My point is, it sounds like they’re Welsh. Doesn’t it?
But then I started wondering: how come Adam isn’t a Welsh international? He’s good enough to join a Premiership side, so he must have been considered. At the very least, he must have played for the Under-21s (Louise is twenty, so I’m assuming Adam is about the same - about half the current Wales squad are twenty or under). There are some really crap players who get to play for the Under-21s like Wrexham players, so Adam ought to have played for them too. Then Adam got picked for England and I was so annoyed. Maybe he was born in England and then he moved to Wales, and he made the decision himself that he would rather represent England, which isn’t unreasonable I suppose. But this isn’t made clear and I was really really disappointed. And he was much sexier when I imagined him having a Welsh accent.
Thursday 10 December 2009
My Booky Wook (Russell Brand)****
Probably no book has given me quite so many mixed feelings as My Booky Wook. To his credit, Russell Brand did just about manage to succeed in making me like him as a person. He does have the ability to be extremely funny, and it’s very difficult not to admire his honesty. His fun-loving attitude is also likeable in general, although it undeniably needs a lot of restraining, and I like people with a bit of originality who don’t spend all their time pretending to be the non-existent normal person.
But then there are the problems. Some of the things he’s done, as a child and as an adult, really are despicable. Some are rather charming, in an insane sort of way. Recent events concerning Andrew Sachs suggest Brand is actually just a bit of a wanker. But that doesn’t mean My Booky Wook isn’t an extremely good read.
Unlike a lot of published writers, celebrity or otherwise, Russell Brand can actually write. He writes very well (his opening sentence would have been excellent in a work of fiction; in an autobiography it’s disturbing but good nonetheless) and his surreal sense of humour, which was so much a part of Big Brother’s Big Mouth (and seems also to be a big part of his stand-up routines) comes across in almost every line. He can be funny, disgusting, or terribly sad, sometimes all in the same paragraph. His descriptions of places and situations are particularly vivid. If the other people featured in the book don’t come across as strongly, this might be due to Russell himself being such a big character, rather than his writing style.
Just one of the things he describes incredibly well is the taking of drugs. I’m sure that everything he says is completely true. I’m sure taking heroin or acid would be an amazing, mind-blowing experience. Being drunk is an amazing, mind-blowing experience, or it is until you wake up the next day, remembering nothing at all or too much (not to mention the hangover). But while drugs can give you these highs that probably are a lot better than real life, it gives you lows as well. More lows than highs. And it ends up affecting other people too. I think I’ll just stick to real life. It might not give you that many highs but it’s worth it if it means avoiding all the lows.
Luckily, Brand describes his low moments very well too. The guy is a long way from being perfect and he probably isn’t all that nice but you do get the impression he’s very glad he’s not addicted to drugs anymore. Maybe he will cause people to take an interest in taking drugs but you can’t deny that, although he waits until the end of the book to do it, he also does a very good job of pointing out the downfalls.
But then there are the problems. Some of the things he’s done, as a child and as an adult, really are despicable. Some are rather charming, in an insane sort of way. Recent events concerning Andrew Sachs suggest Brand is actually just a bit of a wanker. But that doesn’t mean My Booky Wook isn’t an extremely good read.
Unlike a lot of published writers, celebrity or otherwise, Russell Brand can actually write. He writes very well (his opening sentence would have been excellent in a work of fiction; in an autobiography it’s disturbing but good nonetheless) and his surreal sense of humour, which was so much a part of Big Brother’s Big Mouth (and seems also to be a big part of his stand-up routines) comes across in almost every line. He can be funny, disgusting, or terribly sad, sometimes all in the same paragraph. His descriptions of places and situations are particularly vivid. If the other people featured in the book don’t come across as strongly, this might be due to Russell himself being such a big character, rather than his writing style.
Just one of the things he describes incredibly well is the taking of drugs. I’m sure that everything he says is completely true. I’m sure taking heroin or acid would be an amazing, mind-blowing experience. Being drunk is an amazing, mind-blowing experience, or it is until you wake up the next day, remembering nothing at all or too much (not to mention the hangover). But while drugs can give you these highs that probably are a lot better than real life, it gives you lows as well. More lows than highs. And it ends up affecting other people too. I think I’ll just stick to real life. It might not give you that many highs but it’s worth it if it means avoiding all the lows.
Luckily, Brand describes his low moments very well too. The guy is a long way from being perfect and he probably isn’t all that nice but you do get the impression he’s very glad he’s not addicted to drugs anymore. Maybe he will cause people to take an interest in taking drugs but you can’t deny that, although he waits until the end of the book to do it, he also does a very good job of pointing out the downfalls.
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