Synopses & Reviews
When Simon Doonan sat down to write a memoir, he discovered he had no memories of cuddly family times or romantic Hallmark moments -- turns out most of his memories are notably nasty. Birthday parties? No recollection. But his mother's dentures flying out of her mouth when she sneezed and skittering across the kitchen floor? A vivid mental image that still brings a smile. In his subversively funny memoir,
Nasty: My Family and Other Glamorous Varmints, Simon revisits his formative years and the defiantly eccentric, lovably odd family he calls his own, showing us how nasty memories can be very, very good.
Long before he became a celebrity in his own right -- as a bestselling author, as a style arbiter on national television, and as the window display genius of Barneys New York -- Simon Doonan was a "scabby knee'd troll" in Reading, England. In Nasty, he returns to the working-class neighborhood of his youth and chronicles the misadventures of the Doonan clan in all their wacky glory. Readers meet his mum, Betty, whose gravity-defying, peroxided hairdo loudly proclaimed her innate glamour; his father, Terry, an amateur vintner who turned parsnips into the legendary Château Doonan; and his grandfather D.C., a hard-drinking betting man who plotted to win his fortune by turning "wee" Simon into a jockey.
Fearing he would fall victim to the insanity that runs in his family or, worse, the banality of suburban life, Doonan decamps with his flamboyant best friend Biddie to London. There they hope to find the Beautiful People -- those glamorous creatures who luxuriate on floor pillows and amuse each other with bon mots -- and join their ranks. Instead, he encounters various ladies of the night, kidney stones, punks, law enforcement officers, phantom venereal diseases, public humiliations, and camps, vamps, and scamps of all shapes and sizes. Doonan continues his bumbling pursuit of the fabulous life only to learn, in the end, that perhaps the Beautiful People were the ones he left behind.
Infused throughout with good humor and informed by Doonan's keen eye for the ridiculous, Nasty reminds us never to take life too seriously. This is a wickedly good memoir from one of today's most dazzling literary humorists.
Review
"Fabulously entertaining ....Visionary fashion director of Barney's department store, Doonan
(Wacky Chicks, 2003, etc.) is known for taking the ordinary and spinning it into the fantastic ... Doonan recalls the challenges of his childhood with love and respect and, where that isn't possible, bemusement ... A kick, a hoot, a truly wonderful read, with loads of down-and-dirty details about characters who are way more interesting that those dull Beautiful People Doonan was so all afire to find."
--Kirkus Reviews
Review
"That Simon Doonan is a writer with a flair for the clever aphorism and a trenchant wit is no surprise. But that he is also capable of telling a tremendously moving tale is something of a revelation. It's all here: the inexorable bonds of family; Swinging London in all its Rita Tushingham glory; the calamities of AIDS...
Nasty is a book for anyone who has ever yearned to transcend their own beginnings. In other words, if you were ever younger than you are now, you must read this book."
-- David Rakoff, author of Fraud
Review
"Beneath the hilarious camp writing in Simon Doonan's memoir,
Nasty, I was touched by his wistful yearning for the life of glamour, glitz, and Beautiful People, which he ultimately achieved."
-- Dominick Dunne
Review
"At last: a childhood memoir that's about coming to terms with fabulousness rather than incest or binge drinking. Who knew that Simon -- or anyone -- could write about growing up in a gray corner of England with as much wit, charm, and dead-on smarts as he brings to his chronicles of the luxe life in Manhattan?"
-- Graydon Carter
Synopsis
Proving his savory wit and saucy prose in two previous books, Simon Doonan has established himself as one of today's most dazzling literary humorists. Now, in his breakthrough memoir, the writer whom Liz Smith calls the brashest and most brilliant thing in type revisits his formative years and the defiantly eccentric, loveably odd family he calls his own. Long before he became a celebrity--as a social commentator on VH1 and as the marketing genius behind Barney's New York--Simon Doonan was a scabby knee'd troll mired in Reading, England. The essays in Nasty chronicle the misadventures of the Doonan clan in all their endearingly dysfunctional glory. Readers meet his mum Betty, whose gravity-defying, peroxide-yellow hairdo belies an innate sense of glamour; father Terry, an amateur vintner who transforms parsnips into the legendary Chateau Doonan: grandfather D.C., a betting man who plots to win his fortune by turning Simon into a jockey; and demented Grandma Narg and schizophrenic Uncle Ken, both of whom live upstairs. Fearing he will contract his family's insanity bug. Doonan decamps with his flamboyant best friend Biddie to London, where he hopes to establish himself among the Beautiful People, those elusive creatures who luxuriate on floor pillows and amuse each other with bon mots. Throughout his memoir. Doonan continues his bumbling pursuit of the fabulous life, only to learn, in the end, that perhaps the Beautiful People were the ones he left behind.
Table of Contents
CONTENTSIntroduction
Chapter 1 Tarts
Chapter 2 Fun
Chapter 3 Bleach
Chapter 4 Nuts
Chapter 5 Eyeballs
Chapter 6 Camp
Chapter 7 Guts
Chapter 8 Gifts
Chapter 9 Vermin
Chapter 10 Daughters!
Chapter 11 Pudding
Chapter 12 No Knickers
Chapter 13 Punks
Chapter 14 My Willie
Chapter 15 Hollywood
Chapter 16 Crevice Nozzles
Chapter 17 Blanche
Postscript