From Publishers Weekly
Best known for his hilarious stage and screen plays, Paul Rudnick courageously takes on a David Sedaris style of memoir with this collection of essays. Rudnick offers a hilarious romp through the many components of his life: from the sweet tooth that landed him in child therapy to his debut Broadway play,
I Hate Hamlet—and everything in between. Rudnick's humor comes from his ability to buoyantly portray the large-scale personalities that fill his life, including his Jewish aunts, a neurotic agent and a flamboyant costume-designer friend. With such a cast of characters in his own life, it's no wonder Rudnick developed the comical genius within his hit screenplays:
The Addams Family,
Sister Act and
In & Out. Yet in these essays, Rudnick never sacrifices honesty for humor. Rather—as the title suggests—he tastefully incorporates humor into real-life issues, such as his father's death and his friend's struggles with AIDS. In addition to Rudnick's personal essay, he offers the narrative of Elyot Vionnet—Rudnick's alter ego of sorts—whose crude insights are woven throughout the book in the form of journal entries paired with absurd events. Elyot Vionnet is a compilation of Rudnick's friends and family—plus a truly New York sense of entitlement.
(Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“The witty, sardonic playwright (Jeffrey) and screenwriter (In & Out, Addams Family Values) delivers an acerbic and entertaining memoir about his experiences as a child in New Jersey and an adult in showbiz.” (Entertainment Weekly )
“[A] lovable and astute collection of humor pieces...breezy and giddy with zingers, all handcrafted to make their good-natured defiance seem easy...[a] deceptively sweet and droll collection.” (Newsday )
“[A] smart, dishy and very funny essay collection.” (Daily News )
“Uproariously self-deprecating essays of a gay, Jewish life in Manhattan, Hollywood and suburbia.” (Editor’s Choice) (New York Times )
“A laugh-out-loud pleasure to read...[Rudnick] writes with glee and unjudgmental warmth about the bohemian people and places of late 1970s and ‘80s.” (Asbury Park Press )
“Uproariously self-deprecating essays about being gay and Jewish in suburban New Jersey and downtown Manhattan...The vignettes that give the book its title offer...irresistible screeds against the indignities of modern urban life.” (New York Times Book Review )
“Piscataway, N.J. and Hollywood don’t usually have much in common, but writer Paul Rudnick finds absurdity in both.” (Modern Tonic )
“I Shudder is filled with deeply funny musings and adventures that elevate Paul Rudnick to the highest level of American comedy writing. It should be noted that I would be at the highest level of American comedy writing if I had had Paul’s early advantages.” (Steve Martin )
“Paul Rudnick is a champion of truth (and love and great wicked humor) whom we ignore at our peril. There’s no book wiser or half as funny as I Shudder.” (David Sedaris )
“A hilarious, often touching hodgepodge. . . . It’s the literary equivalent of the tchotchke, at least as [Paul Rudnick] defines it: ‘Something peculiar which you don’t need, and which has no discernible purpose or value, but which you can’t live without.’” (Four out of four stars) (People )
