Customer Reviews

Nasty: My Family and Other Glamorous Varmints

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is hilarious!!! It literally had me laughing out loud. It's one of the funniest books I've ever read. I highly recommend it.

This book is incredibly funny--the kind that makes you laugh out loud. (Some lines were so great, I had to read them out loud to my husband). I think it is Doonan's funniest. What's really surprising about this book, however, is how touching and inspiring it is. Without a false note, Doonan's hilarious memoir is also a loving portrait of his strong, brave, (and yes, poor and crazy) family. In the end, the story is incredibly inspiring. Doonan is one of the most creative minds working in fashion and design today and this is the story of how he got there in spite of many odds against him. It is a fascinating and very freeing portrait of creativity.

When I fell upon my very first comedic memoir, "Naked" by David Sedaris, I thought it was very funny. He wrote his essays with a mock sarcasm and an intelligent enough wit that his being homosexual was always an afterthought. He puts his story first, above all else, and never seems like he's trying to be funny. When you do something well and make it look easy, that's talent. Now I know why so many readers love to compare Sedaris with all the other resident gay memoir writers. Because he's top tier. He's the best thing going.

Several rungs down is Simon Doonan, author of "Nasty: My Family and Other Glamorous Varmints." Doonan bills it as a sort of indictment of strange upbringing by even stranger guardians. Well, it's not about that at all. He lightly...so lightly touches on his insane grandmother, lobotomized uncle, devil-may-care alcoholic parents and various family friends that come into and out of his life. In truth, the subtitle to his novel takes the backseat in lieu of the real deal: numerous celebrations, anecdotes, misgivings and stories about being gay. Every single story is basically about gay Doonan who does this and that, as long as we understand that he's always playing for the "other team." Really, it's like a funny, gay porno without the sex.

Wait, did I say funny? Heck yeah, it's funny. A great deal of his more humorous tales just wouldn't fly without all the prissy overtones, so sometimes I understand where he's coming from. When he gets arrested for drunk driving, the best parts involve jokes about his hilarious drag outfit. And the gut-busting chapter where he compares his "nelly" self to his manly, tough-as-nails grandfather is pricelessly appropriate to his "theme." Still and all, a good 60% of these pages don't have to be, "By the way, I'm a homosexual and I just happened to fracture my aunt's skull one day! And I'm gay, too!" You get the gist.

Funny or not, I'm not a fan of his style of writing either. He will introduce new ideas and scenarios right in the middle of his story, and sometimes won't even return to the main point before the chapter ends. I kept feeling like his chapters should have been more compact, tighter. Let's see if I can make it clearer...

Imagine reading a story about an ant. And because ants like breadcrumbs, you end up getting a story within a story about how bread is made. And then a man makes a sandwich. The end. And the end won't always be in English either. Let's not forget the constant phrases in French, a la "Lolita." I always found this practice to be very pretentious. To all you writers out there, let's just write our books in one language okay? Just in case the whole country was kidding about being bilingual.

Doonan, (did I mention that he's gay?) has no interest whatsoever in topping off his essays with any sort of satisfaction. You're laughing about a really funny situation he'd gotten himself into and then, nothing. Half the time, there is no great resolution, just a boring exit. It just doesn't do justice to the scenario if you don't give it a nightcap with a kick. Seal the deal! Would "Vacation" had been funny at the end if Chevy Chase and his family finally made it to Wallyworld, had a great, problem-free time and just went home? No. If Doonan wrote all the endings, Keyser Soze would've kept limping, Babe would have lost the sheephearding contest and Darth Vader would never have had any kids.

Actually, I wouldn't put that past Sedaris either. But he'd at least have made the ending funny.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. How could you not laugh out loud when he describes breaking the skull of his blind aunt (sounds sick, I know, but taken in context...). I recommend this book to anyone who needs a light read. I think this book is quite good.

A completely clever and utterly hysterical recollection of Mr. Doonan's youth that did make me laugh out loud many times while reading it in very public places (on a plane, in the nail salon, etc...) If anyone harbors a cast of characters in their upbringing that made them what they are today, they can genuinely relate and even if they didn't, they will find this book absolutely entertaining.

[...]
NASTY is a funny, campy, saucy, uninhibited memoir of a scrawny, geeky, distinctly "unfabulous", gay kid from a working class neighborhood in Reading England who tries to climb up the unsteady ladder of success and fabulousness. Given the gargantuan ambition the youngster has to get his goal, it is not surprising that in a long tradition of self-creation (a la Madonna and uncountable others), he attains it. Simon finally gets "there". Mind you, it's not overnight, but for the reader, it's well worth the effort.
Simon, along with his queenie pal Biddie moves from what seemed to the teen-ager at the time very tacky, humble beginnings to less tacky environments, finally progressing to London and New York. On the way, he tries to fit in with what he thinks are "the beautiful people"--usually deceiving himself that he's right up "there" with the high and mighty. The results are hilarious and delightfully grotesque.
Eventually Simon realizes the "fabulous folks" aren't always so great after all. NASTY is a bright, witty exposure that "fabulous" can sometimes be as false as it is fun.
The author, Simon Doonan, is a fine debunker of illusions and self-dillusion. As an example of what the adolescent Simon thought was hot glam, he describes the attire he sported on the beach to impress the working classes of his North England town as they stood by probably regarding the spectacle as a form of weird "street theatre."
"What was wrong with them? Hadn't they ever seen a man in a Mickey Mouse shirt; high-waisted, navy blue, pleated Oxford bag trousers, and matching navy blue, women's Bata platform ankle boots with four-and-a-half inch heels, teetering across the sand before?"
Especially charming and probably the most truly fabulous are the nostgalgic accounts of Simon's childhood which seemed so meager at the time, but seen in retrospect take on a wonderfully authentic magic of their own. There is his eccentric but kindly, alcoholic mother Betty, with her enormous, peroxided blond hair piled high on her head--the envy of the neighborhood. There is Simon's father who proudly in the family kitchen made a very decent and popular wine distilled from turnips!
Woven into the memoir are wonderfully eccentric uncles, aunts and grandmothers who add mythic greatness to what the youngstger had considered "nasty" and forgettable at the time.
In real life, from his humble beginnings, Doonan became a well known author (WACKY CHICKS)and an envied window display artist at Barney's in New York City. He probably has to get on ladders to decorate the fabulous displays. He ought to know all about the climb.
Doonan has an iconoclastic wit akin to Noel Coward but his is much raunchier, and earthy! I must admit I hadn't expected to enjoy NASTY so much. HURRAY!
[...]

With NASTY Simon Doonan joins the likes of Sedaris and Augustin Burroughs in the hilarious dysfunctioinal gay memoir sweepstakes. I was enarmored of Doonan's tales of growing up with his lobomized Narg (granny), saucy Mom, strange aunts, best friend Biddie, and a plethora of other VERY memorable characters. By way of a thematic construct -- the book traces Noonan's lifelong quest for The Beautiful People and glamour in all shapes and forms -- and oh what a journey it is! There are laughs galore and several touching passages as well in this joyous romp through the past by born storyteller Doonan.

did i say it was funny? deranged and funny! just the way i like them!
everybody should have a friend like Simon or at least an old aunt like Simon!
obviously the guy is insane and funny! pleazzzze get the book right now
every fashion victim should read it!
ps: buy a few floor pillows before you start reading it!

pedro

Before he became known for his bestselling books, his marketing savvy at Barneys New York, and his reign as chief of the "style police" for VH1 and "America's Next Top Model" on TV, or even before he immigrated to the US from his native UK, Simon Doonan was a self-described "scabby kneed troll" coming of age in Reading, England. In this deliciously tart and witty memoir of his boyhood and early career moves, Simon hilariously details how, mostly with his boyhood friend, Biddie, they dreamed of escaping their boring lives and becoming one with the "beautiful people" they read about in magazines, developing their own style and making their way in the world, without giving the world having the upper hand in the process. From his attention-getting freelance display windows, to drunken evenings bonding with his flat mates, and from remembrances of his stylish but non-nurturing mother to an unfortunate day when he got in the way of a colt going after a young mare, Simon tells each story with relish, detail and devastating humor, but also with solemn emotion where appropriate, relating how each has affected his life and made him what he is today, for better or worse.

Originally released in 2005 under the title "Nasty," this novel became the basis for the BBC series "Beautiful People" which is currently being shown, stateside, on Logo. A refreshing and entertaining light read, which you will remember with a smile for years to come. Five sequin-frosted stars out of five!

I loved every chapter of Nasty, it's a wickedly fun read about maverick window dresser, Simon Doonan, and his family, friends and may/december romance with designer Jonathan Adler (whose book My Prescription for Anti-Depressive Living is a must-have).

Nasty also works as a colourful side portrait of punk/new wave Britian and finding your feet professionally, socially and personally.

Oh, and it's hilarious.