- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Simon and Schuster (9 Nov 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1416586342
- ISBN-13: 978-1416586340
- Product Dimensions: 14 x 21.6 x 1.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,081,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
When Simon Doonan sat down to write a memoir, he discovered he had no memories of cuddly family times or romantic Hallmark moments -- turns out most of his memories are notably nasty. Birthday parties? No recollection. But his mother's dentures flying out of her mouth when she sneezed and skittering across the kitchen floor? A vivid mental image that still brings a smile. In his subversively funny memoir, Nasty: My Family and Other Glamorous Varmints, Simon revisits his formative years and the defiantly eccentric, lovably odd family he calls his own, showing us how nasty memories can be very, very good. Long before he became a celebrity in his own right -- as a bestselling author, as a style arbiter on national television, and as the window display genius of Barneys New York -- Simon Doonan was a "scabby knee'd troll" in Reading, England. In "Nasty",he returns to the working-class neighborhood of his youth and chronicles the misadventures of the Doonan clan in all their wacky glory. Readers meet his mum, Betty, whose gravity-defying, peroxided hairdo loudly proclaimed her innate glamour; his father, Terry, an amateur vintner who turned parsnips into the legendary Chateau Doonan; and his grandfather D.C., a hard-drinking betting man who plotted to win his fortune by turning "wee" Simon into a jockey. Fearing he would fall victim to the insanity that runs in his family or, worse, the banality of suburban life, Doonan decamps with his flamboyant best friend Biddie to London. There they hope to find the Beautiful People -- those glamorous creatures who luxuriate on floor pillows and amuse each other with bon mots -- and join their ranks. Instead, he encounters various ladies of the night, kidney stones, punks, law enforcement officers, phantom venereal diseases, public humiliations, and camps, vamps, and scamps of all shapes and sizes. Doonan continues his bumbling pursuit of the fabulous life only to learn, in the end, that perhaps the Beautiful People were the ones he left behind. Infused throughout with good humor and informed by Doonan's keen eye for the ridiculous, "Nasty" reminds us never to take life too seriously. This is a wickedly good memoir from one of today's most dazzling literary humorists.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you have read Doonan's 'Wacky Chicks' you'll be familiar with Narg, his lobotomised grandmother. In 'Nasty', Narg is back and in full effect rampaging through the pages and what a joy she is to behold!
In 'Nasty' describes his early years in Reading, his move to London and eventually America. The joy of the book is that it is so camp and over the top that you can't help but smile. Early on, Doonan describes writing this autobiography as like having a 'psychological enema' and he lays even the most embarrassing details open for our enjoyment.
Delights include; Narg (of course); his mother's quest to get bigger and higher hair; the wine making attempts of his father (parsnip wine?? I don't think so); a joyous holiday at 1950's Butlins and Blind Aunt Phyllis's guide dog, Lassie, who guides Phyllis into an open grave.
A pure joy! Camp, delicious and just what the doctor ordered!
In 'Nasty' describes his early years in Reading, his move to London and eventually America. The joy of the book is that it is so camp and over the top that you can't help but smile. Early on, Doonan describes writing this autobiography as like having a 'psychological enema' and he lays even the most embarrassing details open for our enjoyment.
Delights include; Narg (of course); his mother's quest to get bigger and higher hair; the wine making attempts of his father (parsnip wine?? I don't think so); a joyous holiday at 1950's Butlins and Blind Aunt Phyllis's guide dog, Lassie, who guides Phyllis into an open grave.
A pure joy! Camp, delicious and just what the doctor ordered!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have to admit that I was hoping Simon Doonan's memoirs would be less than fabulous. As a writer myself I have attempted to transcribe some of the more perculiar, psychotic episodes from my daily childhood journals but, as yet, have failed to create a cohesive and entertaining biography of my own. 'Nasty' is an often hilarious, lurid and unexpectedly poignant story about a small-town British boy who spent his life searching for the Beautiful People he found between the pages of glossy magazines and on the cinema screen. This is the kind of book I would have loved to have written myself but I fear that (something I have always suspected about myself) I lack the audacity and off-the-wall creativity that have shaped Mr. Doonan's illusive career and, ironically, transformed him in to one of the Beautiful People he so desperately wanted to meet.
Format:Hardcover
Excellent book.
An almost biographical account, of Simon Doonans early life, growing up in Reading.
This book is the basis for the BBC comedy series, "Beautiful People".
You may have watched this excellent comedy show.
If so and you enjoyed the series, then you will laugh even louder with this book.
"Nasty: My Family And Other Glamorous Varmints", is the original title for the book.
In Britain, the book is named simply "Beautiful People" to associate it with the series.
Well worth buying !!!
An almost biographical account, of Simon Doonans early life, growing up in Reading.
This book is the basis for the BBC comedy series, "Beautiful People".
You may have watched this excellent comedy show.
If so and you enjoyed the series, then you will laugh even louder with this book.
"Nasty: My Family And Other Glamorous Varmints", is the original title for the book.
In Britain, the book is named simply "Beautiful People" to associate it with the series.
Well worth buying !!!
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