Customer Rating:      Summary: Interesting Read Comment: Russell tells his story exactly as you would expect him to relay it to you in person. He has a knack of making really ordinary events funny esp. the gerbils incident, couldn't stop laughing. I love his theatrical style and witty view on life. It certainly gives an insight to his complex personality and I still wonder why he turned to drugs. Anyway, I believe he was honest about his experiences and found it to be genuine indeed. I'd definitely be interested in his next chapter!
Customer Rating:      Summary: My Booky Wook! Comment: Excellent read,full of things you would never have imagined to have happened to one of the greatest men on the planet(but then i am a fan so i would say that!)
Definately worth a read
Customer Rating:      Summary: Absolutely brilliant Comment: Russell tells a very difficult story in a very light hearted way, he helps you to understand how a lot of his early experiences shaped and moulded him into the unusual and enchanting character that he is today. At no point through out the book do you feel that he is asking for sympathy or wanting allowances to be made for the mistakes that some adults made during his childhood.
His explanation of how it feels to be on drugs is blunt and utterly eye-opening. He holds such insight into his own failings and the way that the people around him have looked after him when he didn't deserve it. One of the most brilliant things about the book is the way that no matter how bizarre the situation that he is describing he always seems to tell it as if he is still very naive London lad, this gives the book a real relatability.
Overall it is just a pure pleasure to read, i have never felt so close to a writer before. He explains his darkest times, weirdest memories and funniest anecdotes in a fantastically elegant way.
I do feel it necessary to say that once you have read this book you will not be able to see him in the same light again, the way that he appears on TV/Radio is not the way he presents himself in the book.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Read this book Comment: This book is truly interesting, very moving and (of course) makes you laugh out loud. However, the best thing about this book is the quality of the writing - it is sublime. I loved it.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Surprisingly honest, moving and very eloquent Comment: Russell Brand is a bit like Marmite - people seem to either love him or hate him. Perhaps this autobiography will help to convert those who seek to dismiss Brand as a flamboyant, egotistic idiot (if, that is, they can see past the simplistic title which is, in fact, a reference to 'The Clockwork Orange').
This autobiography charts Brand's childhood in Essex, in a loving but occasionally misguided family, and his troubled school life. He was a loner, an outsider, and always felt - indeed, sought - to be different from his peers, to set himself apart. Unfortunately, even when his 'Eureka!' moment arrived and he realised he wanted to be a showbiz star, this need to be different manifested itself in troublesome forms which ended in a string of expulsions from various academic and dramatic institutions. Falling in with some interesting characters at school, Brand turned for the first time to drugs and alcohol. As the years went by he added sex to his repertoire, and progressed to harder drugs and more trouble, being fired from job after job, being arrested and released over and over again, and making his way through a string of girlfriends and prostitutes. Ultimately, it came to a choice between drugs and rehab, life and death - and thankfully, with a bit of persuasion from those around him, he chose life. At last, clean and sober (and having spent some interesting time in sex addiction rehab to boot), he was finally diagnosed with manic depression (hardly surprising to anyone with any experience with the illness), his career took off and Russell Brand, Dickensian dandy and charismatic charmer, became a household name in television, radio, movies and the comedy circuit.
It's a gripping and ultimately uplifting story. Brand is incredibly honest about every experience life has thrown at him - for example, he knows that drugs nearly ruined his life, but at the same time acknowledges that they offered much comfort at the time. He doesn't hide his shameful moments, the most cringeworthy experiences of his life, but instead shares them and freely offers his judgement that they were stupid, unforgivable things to do. Not only is this an honest book, it is also well written (albeit with a few slips into that trademark Essex grammar), full of sharp insight, funny musings, a few wonderfully Brand-esque flights of language and a wealth of artistic, literary and cultural references that any professor would be proud of. Even in paperback there are also photos, letters and extracts from his rehab diaries, amongst other things, scattered throughout its pages, which helps put faces to names and in many cases brings a poignant reminder that these hellish experiences were very real.
All in all, I was surprised by this book. Having eagerly read Peter Kay's 'The Sound of Laughter' and been disappointed by how his comedic style translated so badly onto the page, I was delighted to find that 'My Booky Wook' is readable, compelling and has Russell Brand written all over it in a way that adds to its appeal rather than detracting from it. It is vibrant, honest, sexy, moving and despairing in turn, with an ultimate message of hope and redemption which left a smile on my face. Give it a chance, ye of little faith!
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