Like a bender—starts out promisingly, becomes increasingly regrettable.
Fitfully amusing, ultimately annoying account of schmoozing and drinking on the liquor industry’s dime.
As Dunn never tires of proclaiming, he has a job many men would envy: “I get paid to crisscross the globe covering the adult beverage beat” for Playboy. His book blends memoir elements concerning his hardscrabble upbringing with magazine-style lists and primers (e.g. “Hangovers and How to Beat Them”) and, cleverly, 16 original cocktail recipes provided by esteemed professionals like Dale DeGroff. Dunn is at his most engaging when he’s humorously self-deprecating—readers may sense angst and self-doubt beneath his lucky-dog façade—or revealing cynical truths about the hedonism industry. “We booze journalists like to tell ourselves that we’re arbiters of some kind of high-minded gourmet sensibility,” he writes. “But the truth is the only reason we write about the good stuff is because rich people like to get fucked up on the good stuff, and they need someone to tell them about it.” Unfortunately, Dunn is not the sharpest writer, and he seems too preoccupied with his Playboy lifestyle to care—why craft prose that’s engaging or effective when you can brag about boorish behavior in Vegas and friendships with adult actresses and Tommy Lee? This results in a structurally incoherent, rambling narrative peppered with cardboard characters, constant asides that pierce the fourth wall and random repetition (an extended anecdote about having anal sex with an emotionally damaged woman by a Dumpster doesn’t really improve via emphasis). The book is replete with the misogyny of baffled adolescents (the women here are either unattainable nostalgic dreams or pornographic tramps) and downright hypocrisy (he mocks live-music venues and serious cocktail bars as pretentious, which clearly doesn’t apply to his industry pals who provided the drink recipes). By the time he gets around to bragging about his friendship with the late Hunter Thompson, readers will wonder why the author hasn’t developed the slightest insight into what made Thompson’s nonfiction special. Regardless, men who actually still read Playboy and Tucker Max fans may find this vicariously exciting.
Like a bender—starts out promisingly, becomes increasingly regrettable.Pub Date: Feb. 8, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-307-71847-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Broadway
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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