How to Lose Friends and Alienate People - Softcover

Toby Young

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349114854 ISBN 13: 9780349114859

Publisher: Orbit & Abacus, 2002

Synopsis

In 1995, high-flying British journalist Toby Young left London for New York to become a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Other Brits had taken Manhattan - Alistair Cooke, Tina Brown, Anna Wintour - so why couldn't he? Surely, it would only be a matter of time before the Big Apple was in the palm of his hand. But things did not go according to plan. Within the space of two years he was fired from Vanity Fair, banned from the most fashionable bar in the city and couldn't get a date for love or money. Even the local AA group wanted nothing to do with him. How To Lose Friends & Alienate People is Toby Young's hilarious account of the five years he spent steadily working his way down the New York food chain, from glossy magazine editor to crash-test dummy for interactive sex toys. But it's not just a collection of self-deprecating anecdotes. It's also a seditious attack on the culture of celebrity from inside the belly of the beast. Not since Bonfire of the Vanities has the New York A-list been so mercilessly lampooned - and it all really happened!

About this title

About the Author

Toby Young was born in 1963. In the course of his career as a journalist he's been fired from a succession of prestigious newspapers and magazines, including The Times, The Guardian, The Independent and Vanity Fair. He lives in Shepherd's Bush

From AudioFile

British journalist Toby Young should have been the best person to read his own gossipy, occasionally bitter, but mostly hilarious memoir of his time at Vanity Fair. Given the personal nature of the book--he hobnobbed with movie stars, screwed up assignments, fell in love, and generally drank too much--and his melodious BBC delivery, this production should have worked. But Young shows poor judgment by ascribing grating voices to every character. He does a passable American accent, but everyone is improbably gruff, whining, or buffoonish--even the celebrities, whom he is utterly unable to imitate. This is still a funny work, but a straight-up delivery would have allowed listeners to laugh without cringing. D.B. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Edition details

• Publisher: Orbit & Abacus
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0349114854
• ISBN 13: 9780349114859
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352