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Amazon.co.uk Review
In How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Toby Young--columnist and former co-editor (with Julie Burchill and Cosmo Landesman) of The Modern Review--portrays himself as a man pulled to the New York media set by twin desires: to trade one-liners with modern day Dorothy Parkers and Robert Benchleys over very dry martinis, and to drink Cristal from a supermodel's cleavage in the back of a limo. In the event, neither is fulfilled and desire shows itself up to be the snake that eats its own tail--endless and ultimately encircling a big fat zero.
How to Lose... is Young's own telling of his disastrous five-year career in New York journalism, initiated when he is offered a job at Vanity Fair, Conde Nast's flagship star-fest. Young may have been hired for his snappy prose, but his real genius turns out to be antagonising the rich and famous. He is the British bulldog in the Armani-clad china shop of the politically correct glossy posse. He hires a strip-o-gram on bring-your-daughter-to-work day, commits the cardinal sin of asking celebs about their religion and sexual orientation, gets blasted on coke while trying to do a photo shoot and spends less time pulling up his chair to the modern day equivalent of the Algonquin table than trying to blag his way past "clipboard Nazis" barring his way into showbiz parties. Oh, and he gets sued by Tina Brown and Harold Evans. This is the place, he soon discovers, where greatness is measured not in your prose stylings, but how far up the guest list you are for Vanity Fair's Oscar party. But two things raise this particular loser's story above the crowd. First is his spot-on outsider's inside observations on phenomena such as the rigidly Austen-ite New York dating scene. Second, he has the columnist's knack of connecting everyday experience to social politics in order to grind both personal and political axes. In the adoration of the celebrity aristocracy by the masses, he sees the realisation of de Toqueville's warning of "the tyranny of the majority" and witnesses, for those lower down the food chain, the corruption of the "be all that you can be" meritocracy America promises. If these are soft targets, then the hilariously toe-curling experiences that lead him to take aim are well worth the price of a cocktail. --Fiona Buckland --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
I'll rot in hell before I give that little bastard a quote for his book (Julie BURCHILL )
This man, Toby Young, is a rat and a snake and, to hear some tell it, also a raccoon. He deserves all these nasty blurbs (Dave Eggers, author of A HEARTBREAKING WORK of STAGGERING GENIUS. )
In How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Toby Young--columnist and former co-editor (with Julie Burchill and Cosmo Landesman) of The Modern Review--portrays himself as a man pulled to the New York media set by twin desires: to trade one-liners with modern day Dorothy Parkers and Robert Benchleys over very dry martinis, and to drink Cristal from a supermodel's cleavage in the back of a limo. In the event, neither is fulfilled and desire shows itself up to be the snake that eats its own tail--endless and ultimately encircling a big fat zero. (How to Lose... is Young's own telling of his disastrous five-year career in New York journalism, initiated when he is offered a job at Vanity Fair, Conde Nast's flagship star-fest. Young may have been hired for his snappy prose, but his real genius turns )
Fiona Buckland, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW
This man, Toby Young, is a rat and a snake and, to hear some tell it, also a raccoon. He deserves all these nasty blurbs (Dave Eggers, author of A HEARTBREAKING WORK of STAGGERING GENIUS. )
In How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Toby Young--columnist and former co-editor (with Julie Burchill and Cosmo Landesman) of The Modern Review--portrays himself as a man pulled to the New York media set by twin desires: to trade one-liners with modern day Dorothy Parkers and Robert Benchleys over very dry martinis, and to drink Cristal from a supermodel's cleavage in the back of a limo. In the event, neither is fulfilled and desire shows itself up to be the snake that eats its own tail--endless and ultimately encircling a big fat zero. (How to Lose... is Young's own telling of his disastrous five-year career in New York journalism, initiated when he is offered a job at Vanity Fair, Conde Nast's flagship star-fest. Young may have been hired for his snappy prose, but his real genius turns )
Fiona Buckland, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW
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It was the afternoon of 8 June, 1995 when I finally got the call. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
It was the afternoon of 8 June, 1995 when I finally got the call. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is about this British author's experience in making a career in journalism in New York, having landed his "dream job" of working for Vanity Fair, and how he completely failed to achieve anything in a nutshell.
Throughout the book the author demonstrates his clear ability to lose friends and alienate people that led to his failure, and naturally he did not come across as a very likeable character- this is the key problem with this book for me; while I find it entertaining and has a handful of laugh out-loud moments (particularly on his comments about UK/US culture, fame/celeb and his expat expereience), the fact that this is presented as a memoir, as opposed to a fiction means I could not bring myself to love this book, purely because I could not bring myself to like the author, no matter how good he writes.
It's strange but true, but story like this is best kept fictional...
Throughout the book the author demonstrates his clear ability to lose friends and alienate people that led to his failure, and naturally he did not come across as a very likeable character- this is the key problem with this book for me; while I find it entertaining and has a handful of laugh out-loud moments (particularly on his comments about UK/US culture, fame/celeb and his expat expereience), the fact that this is presented as a memoir, as opposed to a fiction means I could not bring myself to love this book, purely because I could not bring myself to like the author, no matter how good he writes.
It's strange but true, but story like this is best kept fictional...
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of the best books I have read in years. Observant, witty, clever and absolutely hilarious. Young also has quite a serious point to make about American and Western culture and illustrates this with great intellience and skill. Of course it is no literary masterpiece but no one expeted it to be. It's a damn good read and is strangely educational at times. I wish I could read it again for the first time (although the second was nearly as good).
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is very difficult to like Toby Young (on the basis of this book or his frequent appearances as a talking head on TV shows), however this is a very good and entertaining book.
It tells the story of Toby Young's time in New York working for Vanity Fair magazine. Toby Young is an interesting, if not particularly attractive, character. He is a very strange mixture of high brow and base instincts coupled with a rather adolescent sense of humour and an amazing ability to offend both intentionally and unintentionally. He seems very self-aware in reflection but is clearly unable to use this self-awareness in the heat of the moment. At times he seems to suffer from 'Roger Rabbit' syndrome - he must say it because it is funny (at least to him) regardless of the consequences.
Toby Young arrives in New York expecting to the presented with a smorgasbord of attractive women bowled over by his English accent, evident (at least to him) intelligence and his celebrity connections (from his position at Vanity Fair). This does not happen. He expects to have a brilliant career at Vanity Fair but he finds the office politics difficult (because he is not a believer) and his sense of humour and capacity of foot in mouth constantly land him in trouble. He becomes obsessed with celebrities but demonstrates a total lack of ability to talk to them in interviews or social situations - a bit of a problem when working for a celebrity magazine. He finds many aspects of life at Vanity Fair distasteful and cannot keep his mouth shut about them leading him inexorably towards the door.
Toby Young comes from the great British tradition of intellectual scepticism (lapsing into cynicism and negativity) and through this filter he is often startlingly perceptive about Vanity Fair, New York and the USA in general. These are the best bits of the book. The chapter on Harvard is very interesting - the lack of intellectual diversity and curiosity appalled him as did the dogmatism and lack of dissent. He is quite perceptive about sexual and office politics although this is somewhat tainted by some of his personal attitudes. The analysis of the popularity of Jane Austen and the New York marriage market is spot on and hilarious; as is the analysis of the extremely hierarchical nature of US society, the so-called meritocracy, and the appalling behaviour in engenders. He is also very good on the shallowness of Vanity Fair and the fashion world in general. Less impressively he has problems with homophobia or rather an inability to notice that people are gay and then saying something ridiculously inappropriate. He also flirts with sexism although some of this is due to a descent into a rather laddish worldview caused by his inability to cope with Vanity Fair and New York.
This is a rather uneven book sometimes very intelligent and perceptive (most of the analysis), at others infantile and rather silly (most of the stuff actually about Toby Young). However, it is a very entertaining book if you can cope with Young's less attractive qualities.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Awful - A stroll through the grave yard of Simon Pegg's career
This film has a lot of high profile actors in it (Megan Fox, Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, Gillian Anderson and Thandie Newton), but it really doesn't do justice to the book by Toby... Read more
Published 9 months ago by D. Bowtell
A classic of its kind
Toby Young has written a wonderfully funny but thoughtful memoir of his time at Conde Nast as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair during the last five years of the nineties. Read more
Published 10 months ago by CraggyDVD
Really enjoyed this - unexpectedly
I wasn't expecting a great deal from this book for some reason, but I found it thoroughly enjoyable and accessible. Read more
Published 15 months ago by M.B.
Candid and funny
Journalist Toby Young writes candidly about his exploits in New York while working for Vanity Fair and "lads' mag" Gear. Read more
Published 16 months ago by susie
Kindle prices is a rip off
OK - this is a great book, but there is something VERY wrong when the Kindle edition is more expensive than the paperback (both prices were discounted off the list price). Read more
Published 19 months ago by I. J. Matthews
Toby Young - A Very Gifted Prat
This book is very funny, very informative and a valuable and interesting insight into life in the New York/Conde Naste scene in the 90's. Read more
Published on 10 Oct 2009 by missy-b
PG Wodehouse
Is this man being the Englishman of our time ?
He looks like something from the Lord of the Rings and has the energy of 10. Read more
He looks like something from the Lord of the Rings and has the energy of 10. Read more
Published on 8 Mar 2009 by Mr. N. Bonsor
Surprisingly Thoughtful
I bought this book as I wanted a light read and a bit of cheering up. In some respects it failed to deliver this but did deliver an unexpectedly thought provoking read. Read more
Published on 12 Feb 2009 by Michael Kilbride
Over-hyped
This book is funny and entertaining but not brilliantly written. Toby Young repeats himself endlessly and uses too many quotes from philosophers and sociologists in an attempt to... Read more
Published on 2 Dec 2008 by Kate Gardner
Schmoozing for Britain
Schmoozing for Britain
They have now made this in to a film with the excellent Simon Pegg. Read more
They have now made this in to a film with the excellent Simon Pegg. Read more
Published on 25 Nov 2008 by Peter Wade
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