Dandy in the Underworld

I had no knowledge of anything substantive that Sebastian Horsley had done before I read his memoir and really, does one have to accomplish anything in life to write a misery memoir? What had Mary Karr done when she wrote The Liar’s Club. Sometimes these sorts of memoirs exist merely because it is interesting reading about the horrific lives other people lead, and there is a certain shock-element to Horsley’s memoir. He is the car wreck. But instead of not wanting to look away, you want to look because you want to see what else the dandy will do for your attention. In a sense, it is less a car wreck than watching a dancing monkey. A dancing monkey with fabulous hair. And to his credit, Horsley does not claim to be much else.

Hell, I show more take back what I said above. Don’t save yourself the time. I say read it. Read this book. About page 75, you’ll grow tired, but dancing monkeys need money, too. And when you read it, wear jeans. And sneakers. If you are a woman, no make-up. If you are a man, squirt cheez whiz from a can straight into your mouth with every page turn. Do the cheez whiz part if you are a woman too. Then, when you are finished, take a picture of yourself naked and send it to him as a thanks for all his hard work in the field of the arts. Realize that no matter how fat, ugly, and casually dressed you may be, by sucking down that cheez whiz and photographing your dimpled ass, you have still contributed more to the art of the Western world than Horsley. And aren’t smug, unearned delusions of grandeur the best revenge? Seb would agree, I think.

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I don't know how many times I've read this book. This was the first non-fiction I read for leisure, and as a 14/15 year old it blew my mind. I never read it from front to back, I would always choose a random chapter. It's the kind of writing that you can just dive into and be totally enthralled, whether you know what has happened up to that point or not. This book shifted my paradigm and was a gateway into the fascinating world of memoirs.

i HATE autobiographies and i HATE "extreme" personalities and i HATE drug stories but you can't help but be charmed by sebastian. he's completely self-aware and is absolutely hilarious. the writing is great and the epigrams are awesome. one of those books where you keep hearing the author's voice echoing in your head long after you put it down.

I'm fairly compulsive about finishing books that I'm reading, but even at the halfway point, I'm just not interested in this. (And that's even after taking the book with me on several long-ish train trips, with no other reading material at hand--I think I napped instead.)

One problem is an entirely personal one, and to which I will freely admit: I'm not a huge fan of the memoir genre. Other people's lives, no matter how much crazy nonsense has transpired in them, hold less of a fascination for me than the stuff that people conjure up. I will say it loud, say it proud: gimme fiction.

But the other problem is that Horsley crams an average of three quips into every paragraph. The genuinely funny remarks, the really witty and Wildean show more observations, are diluted by his insistence on throwing everything at the wall and hoping that something, anything sticks.

I can see how other readers would dig it, and I suppose that the strange mix of bravado and insecurity that comes across in the prose conveys something about the performative/emotional space of the dandy figure, but I can't force myself to power through to the end of this one. show less

It had its humorous moments, and he's a very witty and talented writer. But I just found the story so depressing, on the whole, that I can't recommend it.

Sebastian loves Sebastian more than anything in the world, and so spends the 300+ pages telling you about it. He also loves drugs and sex, and when he is not talking about himself in a multitude of ways, he is boring you with his exploits in his other hobbies. "Artist" - I don't think so.

the incredible life of st sebastian