Chris Elliott (1) (1960–)

Chris Elliott parodies tell all books with shocking, absurd stories of his famous father. Because Bob Elliott (of Bob and Ray) was still alive at the time, he had the chance of rebuttal after each chapter. He's rather clueless of the ridiculous accusations, so he spends his rebuttal time telling about his vacation in Maine and favorite recipes.

The juxtaposition of the outrageous accusations of Chris and the the gentle non-sequiturs of Bob make for a very funny read.

Normally, autobiographies are written in the first person, not the third. But who's to say, really? The fact that essentially nothing in this book is true or accurate is mere nitpicking. The Guy Under The Sheets is a revival of a long neglected genre called dementia praecox. The master, SJ Perelman, absolutely dazzled with it in the 20s and 30s with Dawn Ginsburgh's Revenge and Strictly From Hunger. His prose could take off in any direction, and almost always took advantage of a linguistic show more fork in the road - even if there wasn't one. Any word with two possible meanings meant a tangent to another world.

This book is not quite that clever, though it shows flashes of it from time to time. It steals from every film and tv sitcom scenario you can imagine (and many you will scratch your head to identify), and drops famous names like beavers in the closet. It pays no respect to fame, reputation, or timeframe for that matter. Dead people are very much with us, TV shows appear ten years early. Kurt Vonnegut would approve. (Actually, I'm a bit surprised neither Perelman nor Vonnegut put in appearances.) The book is a sincere effort to entertain, at the expense of story, flow and plot. You can skip a chapter and not miss anything. They pretty much stand alone except for the hyperdramatic death scene, which in a token gesture to sanity, is mercifully placed near the end.

Elliott slips into first person in several absurd footnotes and brackets, but mostly, the story is of a miserable no-talent who gets break after break and hobnobs with the who's who of entertainment from 1920-2010. A pop culture bonanza. It makes a great beach read - good summer junk. And in the final blow to sanity, the book will only be published in October. How perfect. Long live Dementia Praecox! show less

Chris Elliot's first 'novel' is written with the same surreal sense of humor as Get a Life and Cabin Boy. Chances are if you liked those, you will enjoy his fiction as well. The book was chock full of bizarre, laugh out loud moments for me.

At the same time I do think that the story was so silly that it was a bit of a strain carrying it on for three hundred and sixty eight pages. I loved the lunacy of his writing and would have to say that for me it stayed consistently funny throughout, but I show more think his fiction would work better in a book of short stories. show less

Daddy kink! Delicious and well written! Major props to this first time author! I do hope she continues! *cough*Micah and Owen needs a story*cough*

I love big, brawny submissives! And this former Navy SEAL submitted lovely. I loved the snippets we got of how he and his Master came to be. Plus public sex is always a win with me. Wished the story was longer. 4.5 Stars

:D