Nasty: My Family and Other Glamorous Varmints

Doonan, Simon

ISBN 10: 0743267044 / ISBN 13: 9780743267045

Published by Simon & Schuster, 2005

About this Item

Simon & Schuster, 2005; first edition, with full number line, SIGNED and inscribed by author on first page; xii, 284pp. Binding is tight, sturdy, and square; boards also very good; titling remains bright and bold. Exterior wear is very minor. Interior is free of markings. Ships same or next day from Dinkytown, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Seller Inventory # 324036

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Nasty: My Family and Other Glamorous Varmints
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743267044
• ISBN 13: 9780743267045
• Binding: hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Weight: 14 ounces
• Signed: Signed and inscribed by author
• Seller catalogs:
  • Essays/Memoirs

About this title

Synopsis

In a series of essays, the author describes his dysfunctional family life and subsequent career, from his relationships with his parents to his rise to celebrity as a social commentator on VH1 and marketing expert for Barney's New York.

Reviews

"Nastiness is rich. Nastiness is fun." And in this colorful memoir, nasty is also quite enjoyable. Doonan (Wacky Chicks), creative director of Barney's New York, was raised in the industrial wasteland of 1950s and '60s Reading, England. He craved glamour and excitement; what he had instead were two cheeky working-class parents: the fabulous Betty, who sported peroxide-yellow hair and spike heels; and Terry, who embraced amateur wine-making with near-religious fervor. After all, in an "extended family of assorted lodgers and mentally ill relatives," alcohol helped. "It was all quite nasty," Doonan explains, so he and his drag performer friend Biddie headed to London in search of the Beautiful People. Instead, they found crazy characters and lowly prostitutes, people Doonan recalls with unabashed glee. Armed with a relentless joie de vivre, Doonan takes readers on a breezy joyride through his life, focusing less on his career trajectory than on his kooky formative years. Humor is his ultimate weapon, and whether Doonan's in Los Angeles getting arrested in Vivienne Westwood plaid bondage trousers or coping with a gay-bashing policeman in Blackpool, he keeps his comic cool. This endearing book pays tribute to a madcap childhood and the power of familial love. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The author of the hilariously fey Wacky Chicks (2003) fields another winner, recounting his pre-celebrity life among a nest of relatives who were unconventional at best, dubiously linked to sanity at worst. This eccentric British household included unorthodox, homemade wines (concocted from potato peelings and parsnips); a mother with towering, peroxided hair and a tendency to overimbibe those vintages; a butch sister self-denominated Jim; and Narg, a certifiable nutcase granny. Young Simon yearns for life away from the Midlands, in London among the beautiful people. After time there with good friend Biddie--during which he endures poverty; banging, gurgling plumbing; and an earsplitting prostitute neighbor--and years at university, struggling to develop a gay identity, Simon repairs to America at 27, only to be arrested by Tom-of-Finland-ish police while wearing "plaid bondage trousers." Not to worry; he becomes a literary wit and raconteur whose latest will draw and amuse many. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved