Synopses & Reviews
In 1995 high-flying British journalist Toby Young left London for New York to become a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Other Brits had taken Manhattan--Alistair Cooke, Tina Brown, Anna Wintour--so why couldn't he?But things didn't quite go according to plan. Within the space of two years he was fired from Vanity Fair, banned from the most fashionable bar in the city, and couldn't get a date for love or money. Even the local AA group wanted nothing to do with him.How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is Toby Young's hilarious and best-selling account of the five years he spent looking for love in all the wrong places and steadily working his way down the New York food chain, from glossy magazine editor to crash-test dummy for interactive sex toys. A seditious attack on the culture of celebrity from inside the belly of the beast, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is also a "nastily funny read." --USA Today
Review
"In the late nineties, Toby Young emigrated to New York from London to accept a job at Vanity Fair. For young Toby, this was a dream come true. Not only was the editor of Vanity Fair one of his idols (Graydon Carter was co-founder of irreverent, outlandish Spy, Young's favorite magazine), but Young had a full-on Tiger Beat-style obsession for American celebrity culture. He didn't last long. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is an extended explanation why: 1) He couldn't adjust himself to, or, in the end, have any respect for, the culture of celebrity journalism in New York, and 2) Toby Young is a first-class wanker." C. P. Farley, Powells.com (read the entire Powells.com review)
Review
"[A]mazingly, Young's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, which is the story of being fired first from Vanity Fair, then from London's Evening Standard, then, most humiliatingly, from Gear, is a very funny book that's also quite revealing about those elite segments of American media culture that orchestrate the stuff filtering down to the rest of the country. Somehow, it almost seems important....He is very good at detailing the process whereby smart, philosophically sophisticated people learn to nihilistically celebrate flash and triviality." Michelle Goldberg, Salon.com (read the entire Salon review)
Review
"Young's language is energetic and engaging, making one wish...that he'd find a worthier subject. Enjoyably bitchy specifics of Conde Nast culture, buried beneath tedious social analysis and self-deprecation." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Wildly funny." GQ
Review
"It'll make you feel a whole lot better about your own miserable career." FHM
Review
"[This] self-portrait is rarely flattering and sometimes repellent, but carries a startling ring of truth....British-born Young...paints Carter as a fascinatingly complex individual, capable of devastating employees or helping them face dire health problems....What keeps readers on Young's side is his courage to keep fighting..." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Reads like a cross between Bonfire of the Vanities and an episode of Seinfeld." Courier Mail
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"As career moves go, Toby Young's were the worst since Abraham Lincoln booked theatre tickets. But they make a magnificent read." Sunday Times (London)
Review
"This thoroughly humorous memoir provides a scathing portrait of the egomaniacal world of New York media and an insightful look at modern American celebrity culture." Vanessa Bush, Booklist
Review
Before publication: "I'll rot in hell before I give that little bastard a quote for his book."
Julie Burchill
After publication: "A relentlessly brilliant book a What Makes Sammy Run for the twenty-first century...the funniest, cleverest, most touching new book I've read for as long as I can remember." Julie Burchill, The Spectator
About the Author
Toby Young was born in 1963. In the course of his career as a journalist he has been fired from a succession of prestigious newspapers and magazines, including the Times of London, the Guardian, the Independent, and Vanity Fair. He lives in London.