Customer Reviews

I Shudder: And Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey

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

 

 

I have to admit right off that until I read a review of this book, I had no idea who Paul Rudnick was. I downloaded the free sample to my Kindle and thought the book looked at least moderately funny, so I bought it.

I was in for a very pleasant surprise as I kept reading. This book is like one of Paul Rudnick's favorite treats. It's very sweet and people may look at you funny while you're consuming it; in this case, because you are laughing out loud. To be clear though, the book isn't all treacly. Rudnick has an incredibly sharp wit and he's not afraid to use it.

The book is a mix of anecdotes from his life and essays written as an alter ego. Though I definitely enjoyed the autographical writing more than the interlude essays, the latter were also quite entertaining. This book truly did make me laugh out loud many times. It was warm and funny and just a really enjoyable read.

In the past a few authors have attempted memoir-ish writing with disastrous results because the authors are completely unlikeable and, even worse, they don't seem to be aware of it. This book was the opposite. After reading it, I went from not knowing who Paul Rudnick was to wanting to invite him over to dinner and serve up some elegant Peeps arranged very neatly on a platter.

Paul Rudnick is the celebrated writer of novels, plays (Jeffrey), and screenplays (In & Out, Sister Act, Addams Family Values), I Shudder is his first collection. If you enjoy David Sedaris and Dan Savage, you're going to love this; one of the funniest damn books I've ever read.

This isn't just one of those collections of "funny stories" about my wacky family. Rudnick has had a fabulous career, he knows everyone who's anyone, and has the supreme talent to report his observations honestly and without cynicism, which doesn't mean he can't deliver a sharp barb or bitter jab. Included here are tales of working (whoring) in Hollywood as a screenwriter and script-doctor. He writes lovingly about tyrannical out producer Scott Rudin, Bette Midler and Debbie Reynolds. There is a truly unflattering portrait of egomaniacal actor Nicol Williamson's crazy antics on stage and off during the run of Rudnick's I Hate Hamlet. There are fictional (?) diary entries interspersed by the deliciously droll (and homicidal) Elyot Vionnet (which are quite cynical and depraved). Throughout the volume Rudnick harkens back to his New Jersey family. Oh, yes, he is adept at highlighting their many foibles and eccentricities. However, what comes through in generous amounts is the genuine sense of love, and tolerance (if not out right acceptance) they all have for one another.

Rudnick is funny; very funny, and is every bit the raconteur that Sedaris and Savage are. I've had a pretty dreadful month (the death of both my father and a close friend), and I Shutter came right at the right moment for me, uplifting my spirits, inducing broad smiles and much, much laughter; just what the doctor prescribed.

Paul Rudnick's book was a very enjoyable read. The stories included are rather disjointed, but they are not strictly built on each other, so it's okay. There are several hilarious fictional diary entries dispersed between the autobiographical chapters. Most of the autobiographical segments are funny and affirming. There is a bit of name-dropping in the autobiographical sections, which only a devotee to Hollywood, Broadway, and Pop Culture could care about. On the whole, I would recommend this book.

Damn Paul Rudnick! Damn him for his insightful humor, his Neil Simon-esque way with a one-liner (see title of this review--which left me laughing out loud and still brings a chuckle), and his inventive mind that can create characters as rich and modern as Elyot Vionnet. Jealous much? You betcha. "I Shudder" is the funniest, most touching and satisfying...what? Memoir? Sedaris-like literary lozenge? Prolonged monologue? Pick any one of these, and this book tops them all.

I wish I had the ability to write even ONE of these chapters. Oh, well. Paul, please pick up your pen or open your laptop and write the world (or at least NYC) a contemporary comedy for Broadway. We need it. And if there were nuns in it (with digestive issues), more's the better.

I ordered this book since many reviewers said that Paul Rudnick's style of writing is comparable to David Sedaris's and is as funny. I am not finished the book yet, but Rudnick has not made me laugh at all. His true talent may lie in writing screenplays for the movies. I feel forced to continue reading his book since I paid for it but would not recommend it to someone who is looking for funny stories.

Reviewed by J.Litman (New York)
The two stars go to the only two stories worth reading in this book: his mother and her sisters AND the story about "Sister Act". The rest of the book was either annoying or just plain boring. I could not believe this was written by the same author who also wrote the play "Jeffrey" and the screenplay for "In & Out". Better luck next time!

I've been a Paul Rudnick fan forever (we miss you, Libby!). This latest collection of reminiscences (both his and his alter ego's) is a pleasure. Yes, I laughed out loud. More than once.

OMG! lol,although really llllol (that's lots, lots, lots and even more lots of laughs)
Okay, enough email jargon. Let's just cut to Elyot Vionnet. Well, not quite yet. Let me save that. I love Jews. I really do. And especially I love a Jewish humorist who has a bunch of female relatives and the ability to cast them into a wonderful what? Story? Memoir? Story-memoir? The opening story is about Rudnick's mother and her two sisters, just the most wonderful introductory taste of a truly delicious book. But, for me, the prize goes to Elyot Vionnet. "I Shudder" actually becomes a series of "diary entries" by Elyot, a semi-retired substitute teacher! What? What is a semi-retired substitute teacher? This is a guy--well, a queen!--who lives alone (no one would ever, ever want to live with him but only far, far away from him) in a small NYC apartment. And he envisions himself being deified. And like me, he can become obsessive about those people who are non-stop cell-phoners. We all know them, the ones who never shut up, who walk everywhere yak, yak, yakking. Well, Eloyt does something about it. However, we are warned in the the first diary entry that this "deeply intimate and personal diary" may well be "introduced into evidence at my trial." I suspect many readers will not be as disciplined as I have been. I did not, as much as I wanted to do so, skip to the next "I Shudder." But let me tell you, this is not a book in which you will be skipping much of anything, not even the end results of a three-way porno episode. If I were allowed to do so I would add two more stars--make that three--to this review. That good. I hate to say this because I love David Sedaris' writing, but this might be even a little edgier than Mr. Sedaris' memoir(?) pieces.

There were a couple of amusing stories, but most of them were slow and dry. I had a hard time finishing this book.

There was a period of time in the early nineties when I believed there was a real person called Libby Gelman-Waxner, who wrote a column for Premiere magazine, about movies, family, Mallomar cravings and her crush on Daniel Day-Lewis. Libby tended to point out things the critcis overlooked such as the fact that Tom Cruise learned an important life lesson in each of his early movies but never actually got taller. Then I stumbled upon the truth: that "Libby" was the alter ego of Paul Rudnick. I was stunned, but I still enjoyed the column. (I also enjoyed my Christmas gifts after finding out Santa was really Mom and Dad.)

"I Shudder," is Rudnick's collection of essays (and "fiction") about growing up gay and Jewish in surbuban New Jersey and his later career as a playwright and Hollywood screenwriter in New York. Libby's trademark snark is here, too; he says of one producer that his substance abuse resembles a Christmas tree ornament. Rudnick touches on such subjects as the horrors of first apartments, the difficulties involved in bringing "Sister Act" and "In and Out," to the big screen, as well as the quest of Elyot Vionnet to bring civility and human decency back to an increasingly vulgar world. Elyot's adventures are fictional, but we are told in the preface that all the fictional pieces are true. Well, regardless of what's exaggerated, it's a hilarious read. Like David Sedaris, there is a lot of snark here, but the reader gets the sense that Rudnick's laughing with his characters, not at them.