Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Da Capo Press (2003), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 368 pages
Description
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?But things didn't quite 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 and Alienate People' is Toby Young's hilarious and best-selling account of the five years he spent looking for love in all the wrong places and steadily working his way down the New York food chain, from glossy magazine editor to crash-test dummy for interactive sex toys. A seditious attack on the culture of celebrity from inside the belly of the beast, 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People' is also a "nastily funny read." - 'USA Today'… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member wfzimmerman
Hard to classify this book -- self-flagellating, wittily self-deprecating memoir? Only the few asides about the author's father -- an accomplished scholar and man of substance -- give much hint of who the real Toby Young is. Terrifically enjoyable reading, though.
LibraryThing member justjill
Funny true account of British journalist Toby Young's attempts to take New York by storm. At times his juvenile hijinks started to grate on my nerves, but then he would follow it up with a particularly insightful comment on American culture that would win me back over.
LibraryThing member riverwillow
Fascinating in its description of the shallowness of a certain tier of NY life in the the late 1990s. Although I found his unflinchingly ruthless descriptions of his various cockups funny, its the little personal anecedotes about his family which I found endearing - particularly his internal tirade
Show More
when someone comments about his looking after his father. Show Less
LibraryThing member verenka
I really struggled with this book. I liked the title and picked it up in Edinburgh just because of it. I expected a lot more than just some anecdotes of some brit misbehaving in New York. I really dislike the story teller. He is a narcissist asshole with a very juvenile sense of humour. He uses the
What annoyed me a lot and I think is a good example of his behaviour: he was in his mid thirties and didn't have a girlfriend. He couldn't land a girlfriend in New York - nobody was impressed by his stupid lines, sexist jokes or anything else in this middle aged, balding, short guy. So he asked women in his "target group" to participate in a focus group to discuss his shortcomings and only invited women under the age of 35 - so younger than himself. Only Candace Bushnell was asked to participate as well, even though she was older than that. He makes it explicit that she wasn't in his target group but valued her opinion. God forbid that a mid thirties loser with an attitude problem and male pattern baldness date anyone older than him. He ended up being completely surprised and hurt by the women's talk about him - he never thought they wouldn't consider him boyfriend material, so vaught up in his own belief was he.
Another nice example of him simply being an arsehole but instead of acknowledging that, he wonders why he didn't make it: He is jealous of Alex, a fellow brit and someone he calls a friend. His analysis: he is a sycophant who will try to get on the good side with any celebrity and then use them for his plans. Any what does Toby do? He pretends he doesn't know him when they meet and tries to fuck him over several times out of jealousy. How much worse can you act towards someone you know?
If he had given the book a "look what an arse i used to be" spin, I might have bought the story, but he's still trying to make it sound as if everyone else is wrong and he was just out of luck.
Show More
book to analyse his lack of success in his promising journalism career in New York and dishes out on everyone he meets. The trait he finds in the people he meets (narcissism) he is very guilty of himself. He backs up his observations with quotes from various magazine articles, but I didn't buy any of it. The book still read like it took him 400 pages to find an excuse why he didn't hit it big in New York.What annoyed me a lot and I think is a good example of his behaviour: he was in his mid thirties and didn't have a girlfriend. He couldn't land a girlfriend in New York - nobody was impressed by his stupid lines, sexist jokes or anything else in this middle aged, balding, short guy. So he asked women in his "target group" to participate in a focus group to discuss his shortcomings and only invited women under the age of 35 - so younger than himself. Only Candace Bushnell was asked to participate as well, even though she was older than that. He makes it explicit that she wasn't in his target group but valued her opinion. God forbid that a mid thirties loser with an attitude problem and male pattern baldness date anyone older than him. He ended up being completely surprised and hurt by the women's talk about him - he never thought they wouldn't consider him boyfriend material, so vaught up in his own belief was he.
Another nice example of him simply being an arsehole but instead of acknowledging that, he wonders why he didn't make it: He is jealous of Alex, a fellow brit and someone he calls a friend. His analysis: he is a sycophant who will try to get on the good side with any celebrity and then use them for his plans. Any what does Toby do? He pretends he doesn't know him when they meet and tries to fuck him over several times out of jealousy. How much worse can you act towards someone you know?
If he had given the book a "look what an arse i used to be" spin, I might have bought the story, but he's still trying to make it sound as if everyone else is wrong and he was just out of luck.
Show Less
LibraryThing member mkschoen
Entertaining so far, but all the bits about how Americans are just crass money-grubbers, as compared to the stately, nobel Englishmen is getting kind of tired.
LibraryThing member libraryhermit
I agree with all the other reviewers that this is a very fun book to read because anger, disappointment, hopes-unfulfilled, rancor, rejection by society, and all the other similar things that the author experienced, are all time-honoured themes in works of literature over the centuries. We will
Some reviewers thought that he was a snob who just had to come down a notch in is over-estimate of his self-worth. Could be true of the author, could be true of all of us.
In the end I will leave all that behind and just remember it as a hell of a funny book.
Now that I have just discovered that it is a movie, I will try to find the movie somehow.
Show More
never cease to enjoy commiserating with, or, take your pick, secretly distancing ourselves from, people who are in some way less successful than us.Some reviewers thought that he was a snob who just had to come down a notch in is over-estimate of his self-worth. Could be true of the author, could be true of all of us.
In the end I will leave all that behind and just remember it as a hell of a funny book.
Now that I have just discovered that it is a movie, I will try to find the movie somehow.
Show Less
LibraryThing member carterchristian1
You either like or hate this author. All about him.
LibraryThing member Narshkite
So, I didn't actually finish this. I pulled the plug at 172 because this man is such an unmitigated asshole I simply did not want to spend another moment with him. Even if Young were an interesting giant, horny, and surly toddler (and he is not, though he has some interesting experiences) this
Show More
would have been no fun. To enjoy this you have to want to ride shotgun with Young, and that was the last thing I wanted to do. 1 1/2 stars instead of 1 because there are some funny stories well told. Show Less
LibraryThing member mimo
Oh the things an unemployed librarian with newly-found time will pick up to read... Still, the fact that I finished it with such gusto says something. It was an interesting peek into a world I'll never live in.
Subjects
Language
Pages
368
Original publication date
2001
ISBN
0306812274 / 9780306812279