Russell's review
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
by Toby Young
Russell's review
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People by Toby Young
Russell's review
rating:
Toby Young gets a job with Vanity Fair in the mid 1990s. He comes to New York with boorish manners for a upper class Brit and stumbles through the job with middling success.
Toby's blusters in America help point out some of the absurdities our country holds compared to Great Britain. Most interestingly, he expands on his father's invention, the word "meritocracy" and its negative consequence, absolute entitlement.
Two-thirds of the way through the book Toby gets fired from Vanity Fair and his opportunities to say embarrassing things to important people in a disarming British accent disappear. He muddles through a very trite description of his cocaine/alcohol addiction in the wake of that incident. The book sort of falls apart at that point.
Toby's blusters in America help point out some of the absurdities our country holds compared to Great Britain. Most interestingly, he expands on his father's invention, the word "meritocracy" and its negative consequence, absolute entitlement.
Two-thirds of the way through the book Toby gets fired from Vanity Fair and his opportunities to say embarrassing things to important people in a disarming British accent disappear. He muddles through a very trite description of his cocaine/alcohol addiction in the wake of that incident. The book sort of falls apart at that point.
