Drink, Play, F@#k: One Man's Search for Anything Across Ireland, Las Vegas, and Thailand [Paperback]

Andrew Gottlieb (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 2009

In Drink, Play, F@#k Bob Sullivan, a jilted husband, sets off to explore the world, experience a meaningful connection with the divine, and rediscover his passion. His travels lead him from his home in New York City to a drinking bender across Ireland, through the glitz and glamour that is Las Vegas, and to the hedonistic pleasure palaces of Thailand. After a lifetime of playing it safe, Mr. Sullivan finally follows his heart and lives out everyone's deepest fantasies. For who among us hasn't dreamed of standing stark naked, head upturned, and mouth agape beneath a cascading torrent of Guinness Stout? What could be more exhilarating than losing every penny you have because Charlie Weiss went for a meaningless last-second field goal? And what sensate creature could ever doubt that the greatest pleasure known to man can be found in a leaky bamboo shack filled with glassy-eyed, bruised Asian hookers? Bob Sullivan has a lot to teach us about life. Let's just pray we have the wisdom to put aside our preconceptions and listen. Because what Bob Sullivan finds isn't at all what he expected.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As an impudent retort to Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling Eat Pray Love, the book that swept book clubs and bestseller charts throughout 2006, this comic travelogue is nothing if not a conversation starter. Fortunately, it's also a dizzyingly fun parody that apes Gilbert in its premise (Ireland, Las Vegas and Thailand replace Gilbert's post-divorce destinations, Italy, India and Indonesia) and its particulars, mirroring plot developments and platitudes line by line (where Eat Pray Love opens with its protagonist contemplating a kiss with an Italian named Giovanni, Gottlieb starts moments from a liplock between his narrator, divorcee Bob Sullivan, and Giovanna. That kind of parody can wear over pages, but Gottlieb's protagonist is a likable and entertaining enough rascal to carry the story and, with the help of a happy-go-lucky personal trainer named Rick, do some good-humored philosophizing on the gender-trumping predicament of heart-break. Still, anyone who has suspected that boys have a bit more fun than girls will find their theories confirmed, as Gottlieb packs in just as much adventure as Gilbert, with a quarter of the self-seriousness.
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About the Author

Andrew Gottlieb is a comedy writer with experience in sit coms, feature films, and books. He is currently writing and producing Z Rock, an original TV show that he co-created for the Independent Film Channel. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat (February 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802170528
• ISBN-13: 978-0802170521
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #217,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #48 in Books > Travel > Asia > Thailand

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Genius. Pure Genius. Wish I'd Thought Of It First., March 23, 2009

By 

A. Revel "iGoddess.com" (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Drink, Play, F@#k: One Man's Search for Anything Across Ireland, Las Vegas, and Thailand (Paperback)

Three words for this hysterical, witty, GENIUS novel. 1: Oh. 2: My. 3: God. A satire on the novel Eat Pray Love (Elizabeth Gilbert), comedian writer Andrew Gottlieb nails the angry husband who takes a year off dedicated to drinking, gambling and, well, f@#king. The protagonist, Bob Sullivan, is in Ireland when he notes that his ex-wife was on "some kind of whirlwind transcontinental spiritual journey. Yet one more idea of mine that she copied that I'll never get any credit for." (page 51). The intrinsic connections to the Eat Pray Love story are masterful without being overwhelming or obvious - so much so, this story would stand alone if you'd never even heard of Eat Pray Love. If every story has two sides, Drink Play F@#k is a convincing version of a scorned husband's tale of a marriage break-up and subsequent quests to discover what really matters in life: happiness.

46 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Adolescent, February 12, 2010

By 

Stephen T. Hopkins (Oak Park, Illinois) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Drink, Play, F@#k: One Man's Search for Anything Across Ireland, Las Vegas, and Thailand (Paperback)

Parody can be the funniest of all types of humor, so it was with high expectations that when I saw the book cover of Andrew Gottlieb's, Drink, Play, [...], as a match to Elizabeth Gilbert's popular Eat, Pray, Love, I picked it up with relish. I had given Gilbert a two-star rating, and never bothered to write a review. Following a divorce, protagonist Bob Sullivan decides to let himself go loose for the first time in his life, and see what happens. His first step was to drink, and he did that with gusto in Ireland, meeting compatible characters and telling stories to all who would listen. I wish this book had such gusto, but the drinking episode came across as maudlin. The pace picked up when Bob heads to Vegas to play, and along the way meets a guru who guides him through the Vegas games. The gambling, golfing and playing had little humor and unexceptional stories. At just the right time, the guru suggests the pleasures of Thailand, and Bob ends up in a remote resort to enjoy great physical satisfaction, until a car accident. While I laughed at times, there just wasn't enough laughter to make the full parody work. By the end of the book, I couldn't care less what happened to Bob.

Rating: One-star (Read only if your interest is strong)

26 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Expected Steak, Served Tripe..., August 11, 2009

By 

Dan B "Dan B" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drink, Play, F@#k: One Man's Search for Anything Across Ireland, Las Vegas, and Thailand (Paperback)

The premise of this book is great: parody Eat, Pray, Love. Few books are as ripe for parody as that one. I mean, how can anyone mess that up? Well, Gottlieb did. What he delivers is a sterilized, homogenized, made-for-TV tale of a guy I suspect is really patterned after John Glenn when he was a younger man, but on estrogen. It is obvious this story panders to the female book-buying audience and Bob Sullivan comes off as a made-acceptable character who apologizes constantly for being male. There's no other explanation for the constant I'm-not-really-that-guy disclaimers that quickly become Sullivan's mantra. Well, if he's not that guy then why was he written as the main character? Wouldn't a parody mean he should be the antithesis of the lady from Eat, Pray, Love? Bob Sullivan's friends are right out of a screen writing 101 class, becoming Bob's bad-boy, yet acceptable, yet wouldn't want to marry, guides to the protagonist's journey into his supposed debauchery; the debauchery that never seems to pick up steam or muster any credibility. But there was no real debauchery, except for maybe the frat-boy drinking, which Gottlieb could get away with without turning off a female audience. And there's no f@#king. No there wasn't. A brief yet somehow made-acceptable tryst with the girl from India, and then he falls madly in love while laid up in his sick bed. Yeah, that's real debauchery tempered with an eye toward book sales to the fairer sex. Why am I so disappointed with this book? Because I expected to be at least slightly entertained and never thought I would have my intelligence insulted with such a trite, backpeddling and poorly constructed attempt at parody. And for believing, once again, some glowing reviews without checking to see what other books the reviewers have reviewed. Stupid me.