Customer Reviews: Read 94 more reviews...
 Intelligent, inspirational and very, very funny November 16, 2008
This is the best book I've read in a very, very long time. Brand's conversational style peppered with hilarious insight and humour is phenomenal. He holds the narrative well throughout, and unlike other autobiographies, he manages to tell the story of his life without that boring "and then this happened, and then that happened and then this happened" rhythym. He seamlessly weaves in and out of his memories and anecdotes, without leaving the reader in a state of confusion.
I have read a few online articles where the reviewers have thought he came across as arrogant and narcissistic, but truly when you read this book you realise that he is actually quite sensitive and insecure in himself.
I have been disappointed by the closing chapters of most of the autobiographies I have read - they often have a feeling of being unfinished. This book isn't one of those. The last paragraph is poignant, and leaves you feeling like this part of Brand's life is closed. I felt shivers up my spine when I read the last sentence, and was sad to have finished - and that's when I know I've just read a great book.
 Just not all that.... November 14, 2008
300 pages of "Ooh! proper mad, wiv sex and drugs was me" redeemed by some genuine insight into the nature of addiction.
The recent "old-man-slightly-upset-gate" is daily mail induced nonsense but I'm just not sure if he's as funny as he thinks he is: I've limited tolerance for other people's drug anecdotes and the sex ones made me feel decidedly tacky. It's not even factually correct, the gay bear bar on Poland street is called the Kings Arms, the King William is his local in Hampstead.
 Funny honey for the soul. November 13, 2008
I'm half-way through this book, but I feel moved enough to write a review anyway.
It's had me in fits of laughter so far, and has made me reevaluate my own past, (the first half of the book seems to be about his early days).
Brand is candid, funny, out-spoken, and unafraid to share those things that most people sweep firmly under the proverbial carpet, locking them forever more in that dark dusty room at the back of their minds.
For me, this is his genius as a person...anything that provokes acute embarrassment (in him) he switches around and uses as material. Whether this technique is used consciously or more likely totally instinctively, it is a classic self-therapy tool to shine light on dark matter.
I think that if he didn't have this capacity, as demonstrated in this book, onstage, and in life generally, he'd be a hideous mess of twisted darkness, a self-destructive problem personality both to himself and others.
But as it stands he's blazing a unique trail of authenticity, taboo-busting humanity, and seriously tear-inducing hilarity, and has become a national treasure in the process, much loved and admired.
This is a book written in his own style, (the prose written as he would speak...an erudite Quentin Crisp meets Essex yob.....demonstrating a flair with cultural reference and obscure wordage thrown into a Magimix with the cartoon from the Peperami ads), his brain synapses firing away making crazy, random, obscure and mirth-making connections throughout.
Russell obviously delights in his own ridiculousness, in the ridiculousness of day to day life and of us all, and his quirky brand of zany whimsical jocularity shines out of every page.
So far this book has been refreshingly not what I expected. Instead I've found it to be intelligent, thoughtful, full of charm and grace, and remarkably self-aware.
I look forward very much to the second half.
P.S. I nearly didn't buy this book. I picked it off the shelf in WH Smiths, had a flick through, put it back, went back again a few days later because I'd kept thinking about it, picked it up again with as much secretive guilt as a man picking a porn mag from a top shelf, had another flick through, returned it, walked around the shop looking at other things but really only thinking of this book, then took it to the counter where I placed it face down, (my excuse being the scannable bar-code was on the back) - really I was just embarrassed for some silly reason. I am no longer embarrassed, and my current opinion of Russell is that I think he'd make a good pal, being loyal, witty and a constant source of entertainment. If you've any hesitations in getting this book, I would suggest that if you've come this far, go that one step further and commit to reading it. You won't be disappointed.
And you might even be provoked to examine some of your own quirks and demons and share them with the world with grace and humour too...perhaps it would create a society with a few less hang-ups concerning matters that should be shouted to the sky and which are instead treated with hushed tones, causing grief.
 I did attempt to read it November 10, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I could not get into this even though I was really looking forward to it. Got to about chapter 2 put the book down and only picked it up again to store it away to attempt it again in the (far) future when I am maybe between books and bored. If I was anyone about to purchase this book I would keep checking charity shops to see if you could pick it up for 50p instead.
Funny book! November 6, 2008
I only bought this book because I heard Russell Brand talking about it on the radio. It had some quite profound moments in it, but mostly it was just very funny and it made me laugh out loud!
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