‘My Booky Wook’ by Russel Brand
One of the first auto-biographies (of sorts) of a comedian that I ever read was Rik Mayall’s ‘Bigger then Hitler, Better than Jesus’ and, following on from that, I learned to take all of them with a heavy pinch of salt, at least until proven otherwise.
And that’s probably the one piece of advice I would pass on. And it applies to this, in my opinion, which is probably a huge disservice to Russel Brand – it’s not that I don’t believe every anecdote and tale of craziness – there’s plenty in there that is just too insane / sick / mental / fun for it be moderately fabricated, but the tales that are described are so far away from things I can relate to I did find myself once or twice thinking, “Oh, come on, you’ve dramatized this a bit somewhat, haven’t you? Sneakily crafted in some little white lies to spice it up? It’s ok, you can tell me.”
But that all sounds very negative, and I don’t mean that at all.
The book is a fun, comfortable read, albeit with stories in there that, I would imagine, depict some pretty alien scenes to the majority of readers.
What does the writing style tell us about Brand? Probably nothing that’s not already documented, but I also don’t really want to be drawn on those conversations.
Taken as is, it’s fun, interesting, and occasionally prods areas of the heart and mind unexpectedly. And it is amusing. I’ve never disliked Brand, and in many ways found the book as I expected I would – a slight reflection of his on-screen personality in text form.
If you’re a fan of his anyway, you’ve probably already toyed with reading it – and I’d recommend that.
If you actively dislike him (I know plenty of people claim to) then don’t bother picking it up because, in all honesty, you “won’t get it”. Not that there’s anything to get, nor is there a particularly benchmark I can set aside as being “it”, but it won’t do anything for you.
If you’ve never really heard much of him then it’d be interesting to see how you find it. It does contain a plentiful amount of sex, drugs, and rock and roll though, so bear that in mind if you are easily offended by such things.
