Book Review: My Booky Wook: A Memoir of Sex, Drugs, and Stand-Up by Russell Brand

Rule #1 for writing a bestseller: Begin with the action.
(Then go back and give the explanation leading up to it.)

British actor and comedian Russell Brand has certainly adhered to this #1 rule. He begins his bestselling memoir, My Book Wook: A Memoir of Sex, Drugs, and Stand-Up, with the account of his (semi-) voluntary entry into a rehabilitation center for sex addicts.

With that opening hook, Brand goes back and begins Chapter 2 with his birth and early childhood, proceeding chronologically through the rest of the book describing--in his widely-swinging brash, yet self-effacing manner--the circumstances surrounding him as he first began acting (and acting out), pursuing women, and marching determinedly toward drug addiction.

As most people familiar with the entertainment industry know, drug addicts tend to stumble into (or create for themselves) bizarre situations, and Russell Brand is no exception. Celebrity memoirs are filled with the crazy antics of creative people high on mind-altering substances. The strength of Russell Brand's memoir is not only his willingness to use this material (most of it shameful and embarrassing) in his book, but his talent in turning these experiences into comedy. Brand's writing style is conversational, purposely anti-grammatical, yet highly intelligent. He recalls doing Shakespearean improv while high on heroin. He quotes Percy Bysshe Shelley and Charles Baudelaire. He most delightfully (in this American edition) provides footnoted explanations of his British colloquialisms and pop culture references.

Those who connect with Brand's particular brand of standup comedy will enjoy his memoir, like a standup comedy routine with a backstage pass to his memories. Brand admits his whole life is material for his comedy (as it is with most comedians), his life a rehearsal for the only reality: his performance. And so it is that his tumultuous past, his most inherently unfunny mistakes and indiscretions, provide the material for this comedic memoir.