Customer Reviews

Exile in Guyville: How a Punk Rock Redneck Faggot Texan Moved to West Hollywood and Refused to Be Shiny and Happy

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Thank you Dave White!!!!!

Though I don't live in LA anymore, Dave's book fondly reminds me of those afternoons when my snarky friends and I would sit at the Starbucks on Melrose for hours and endlessly make fun of the non-stop freakshow going by.

And when I say "make fun of" I really mean "love and appreciate" because without those half-insane, made-over, media-drunk, fashion-challenged, career-deluded souls presenting themselves publicly for my amusement, the LA experience would be mighty grim, indeed.

If you live in LA, or have ever lived in LA, no matter what your experience, there's something in this book for you. I promise.

If you haven't lived in LA, consider this book a cautionary tale...or a handbook...or an inspirational how-to guide...or evidence that the LA you see on Extra is, in fact, there...just not how you might think.

Oh hell, just buy it - it's cheap!

...because mine still hurts from laughing so hard. This is the kind of book that you keep promising yourself "Just one more page, then I'll put it down till tomorrow!" because you don't want it to end but then you keep reading anyway and the next thing you know your hemmorhoids are sore.

Oh, was that too much information? Then you might not like this book. But I loved it.

Now excuse me while I go hunting for the Preparation H.

I am pretty sick and tired of the whole "witty gay guy" thing and really appreciate Dave White's genuinely funny authentic voice. I have read his other stuff and knew it would be entertaining, but I did not expect to laugh out loud and read the whole book in one sitting.

Chopped up into email-sized chunks of hilarity, Dave White writes scathing daily diatribes about the tires-screeching arrival to his new West Hollywood homeland from podunk Texas. His adaptation doesn't come easy, from forcing himself to deliberately ignore celebrities to enduring goodie-bag drenched press junkets of horrid Hollywood reject movies.

A great profanity laden read end-to-end. West Hollywoodians would take much needed offense upon reading it.

It takes a intellegent humor to keep me interested and Dave proved worthy of my time. If you are at home with 'mean-but-funny' it will be more than worth your time as well.

The list of writers who've accurately described the LA experience is as short as my attention span. Raymond Chandler and Joan Didion come to mind. Finally, someone has done it with a nasty growl of humor and a playful sense of language that makes you wish you wrote it.

This book isn't about being gay or anything like that. It's about the insanely funny details of acclimating to an insanely funny town.

It's got nice bite-sized chapters and it's the cleverest book I've read in a long long time.

As a wage slave in entertainment journalism, and a child refugee from Los Angeles, I found this book to be gut-bustingly funny. Dave White is one of the most charismatic narrators ever, and he understands the simple concept that the more willing an author is to lay him or herself completely bare, the more hilarious their exploits - however wretched - will be for the reader. To paraphrase my partner, who vowed never to return to La La Land after an erroneous solicitation charge, "This book actually makes me want to visit LA - or at least Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles - with Dave White."

There are two things in life that make it a little more livable - a good book and a good laugh. Dave White's `Exile in Guyville' is a good book, filled with good laughs.
From the start his quick, ascerbic wit and boyish charm are apparent. Add to that, the fact that his observations are dead on, and the manner in which he tells a story is so endearing that it tends to be difficult to set this book down.
Buy this book now.
Read.
Giggle.

This book couldn't be harder to put down if it was krazy-glued to your fingers. Dave White's "Exile in Guyville" is witty and sarcastic, and very evocative; read it if you want to find out what West Hollywood is REALLY like for regular folks.

... all of which is warranted! (From someone who also made that move to L.A., the similarities in experiences were uncanny.)

Dave White's book is an excellent read about the culture shock of moving to the very unique and rather disturbing Los Angeles. A great perspective and fun look at all the intricacies of life in a strange town.

I read this in less than two days -- once you pick it up, be prepared to finish it quickly!