Sincerly, Andy Rooney [Hardcover]

Andy Rooney (Author), Andrew A. Rooney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1999

The life of the lovably grumpy 60 Minutes commentator and syndicated columnist in letters to family, friends, and the public.. As you might imagine, Andy Rooney gets a lot of letters. As you might not expect, he writes a lot of letters, too. Now, for the first time, the funniest, wisest and most interesting of Rooneys correspondence is collected. At times acerbic, hilarious and sage, Rooneys missives cover a wide array of topics. He responds to complaints from viewers; he corresponds with old friends; and he writes to his children (the long letter to them about why hes decided he can no longer believe in God is one of the collections highlights).A wonderful gift book that makes you chuckle and think twice, this is Andy Rooney at his best.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Cantankerous cultural icon Andy Rooney has come up with a twist on a concept for his latest book: instead of printing letters that people have written to him, he has collected his own responses, prefaced with occasional editorial notes to get the reader up to speed. All together, they make an interesting chronicle of his career, spanning everything from his missive to CBS management's 1950 request to swear that he had never been a member of the Communist party to his response to a modern conspiracy theorist. Rooney is at his best when his sly deadpan humor comes out, as when he replies to the editor of a celebrity cookbook with a recipe for baked potato ice cream. Just as enjoyable for other reasons are the pieces in which he becomes almost breathtaking in his cussedness, stubbornly waging an extensive battle against the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and mercilessly ripping apart the letters of a fifth-grade class. Regular viewers of 60 Minutes will be gratified to see that even in short letters, Rooney has a tendency to take sudden detours into his trademark quotidian observations ("Of all the postal abbreviations, MI is the worst."). Less frequent but more prominent are his forays into the maddeningly illogical, as when he refuses to understand why being a homosexual is not the same kind of risky behavior as being a cigarette smoker, or when he defends his linguistically naive statement that English is "better" than other languages. Ah, but that's all part of his peculiar charm, isn't it? --Ali Davis

From Publishers Weekly

Rooney's distinctive whining voice comes through in this collection of his letters to fans, friends, CBS executives, tax collectors and others. The popular TV commentator and curmudgeon-in-residence sallies forth with ripostes at shady car dealers, astrologers, lawyers, modern poetry, deceptive packaging, tobacco industry duplicity and George Patton ("the most over-rated general of WW II"). While these seem like easy targets, at least in this epistolary shooting gallery (which contains only Rooney's correspondence, not the letters that prompted them), he occasionally sounds off even more forthrightly here than on television. Explaining his agnosticism in a very personal letter to his four children, Rooney states that religion is illogical, impedes the progress of civilization and doesn't make people nicer to each other. In a letter to the Advocate, he apologizes for his insensitive broadcast remarks about homosexuality, then pours fuel on the fire by vouchsafing his opinion that homosexuality is "a behavioral aberration" and that he finds gay sex repugnant--but adds that he has had many gay friends and denies he's homophobic. On the lighter side, Rooney celebrates the pleasures of home and family, watching football, drinking bourbon, banging away on old typewriters and woodworking. Entertaining and witty, but also at times pontificating and arch, these letters span half a century, encompassing his struggles as a freelance magazine writer, his work as a CBS documentary scriptwriter and his bombing missions as a WWII pilot. Besides the replies to 60 Minutes watchers, there are conversational missives to Will Rogers, Bill Moyers, Helen Gurley Brown, E.B. White, Eric Sevareid, Walter Annenberg, Peggy Noonan and Barry Goldwater. Though devoted fans may enjoy this breezy compendium, the overall impression is of slight material and too much self-indulgent ephemera.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs; 1st edition (November 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891620347
• ISBN-13: 978-1891620348
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,267,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hillarious, November 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sincerly, Andy Rooney (Hardcover)

I must admit that I am only half way through Andy's book, but if the second half is as funny as the first, I will be very pleased. I have always enjoyed Andy Rooney on "60 Minutes", therefore I am somewhat biased, but if you want a good, humerous, enjoyable read, get this book now.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic Andy, December 6, 1999

By 

William Kennedy "bulldogdoc" (Fresno, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sincerly, Andy Rooney (Hardcover)

I got this book to read while on vacation on the beach in Mexcio. It did not disappoint me. It is full of the acerbic wit and wisdom of Andy, yet the final "letter" is an honest look at philosophy and religion. The book is well-paced and well editied and rambles, just as Andy does. After reading his letters, I appreciate him more than ever.

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Take His Comments On The Inside Book Jacket Seriously, December 21, 1999

By 

taking a rest - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Sincerly, Andy Rooney (Hardcover)

Andy Rooney and 60 Minutes are arguably one of the finest hours on television past and present, and I doubt it would fail to make anyone's top 5 list. Mr. Rooney can always be counted on for either a clever, humorous thought on an issue that generally is a bit offbeat, for example I would site the time he went on about paperclips, he hates them. There is another side to Mr. Rooney and that is when he clearly is angered, and while upset, he is always eloquent and reasoned, as when he spoke of the suicide of Kurt Cobain. As I mention in the title of this review take the book jacket seriously. There are letters that are outrageously funny (his correspondence with the IRS) and others that will leave you with abdominal pain from laughter. However you rate his warning that he may give offense to some individuals or groups, the book is more serious than the Mr. Rooney of television, and he speaks very bluntly about his feelings on topics that may not gain many new fans, and may lose a few. I hope I am wrong, as his type of reasoned candor that never rises to that of a zealot is rare. This is a book by a very principled man who once left CBS rather than compromise his beliefs, and who was suspended from 60 Minutes for 3 months by politically correct, cowards. This is not the Andy Rooney that people parody with the line "did you ever wonder?". This book is not a humor book although it contains some very entertaining and funny letters. This is a serious, and very personal book, and lest anyone doubt his willingness to share the most personal of thoughts, the letter he writes to his Children about Religion in general, not a specific branch, is about as personal as one can get. I fear that his thoughts may be lost as emotions will be raised quickly, the issue of Religion is always a dangerous one to comment upon. He had the courage to put these thoughts in a book, they deserve to be read. I think the collection of letters is very good, and shows a whole new dimension to this man. As I said, I doubt this book will win many new friends for him, but he clearly values honesty, and his personal feelings are not attacks however much his detractors may wish them to be.