Social Disease

by Paul Rudnick

In this comic novel by one of America's funniest writers, "the travails of (the) protagonist, a trust-funded trendoid named Guy, his ditzy clubland bride Venice, and their transvestite housekeeper, Licky Barnes, are very perky indeed. . . . "Social Disease" . . . is really about the three major issues of our time: sex, hair, and the telephone" (Paul Rudnick, "New York Magazine").

Genres: Fiction, Humor, LGBT, Queer

212 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Kaethe]

Rudnick is hilarious. I wish he were publishing more novels, although I think scripts are a good choice for a man with such amusing dialogue.

***

23 February 2023


I don't know when I wrote that, and GoodReads won't tell me any more. Quelle sigh. Probably not earlier than 2008 so, 20 years after first reading it? And 15 years farther along, it holds up.

I'll Take It holds top honors: probably it always will: it's got so much heart. Honestly there was a possibility that as a novel of 80s club culture in Manhattan this would possibly not age well. Having all those scripts recent in my mind, I see elements, motifs and themes and such that appear differently elsewhere. Nothing as annoying as John Irving, nothing so heavy-handed, just families and aspects of characters. The sort of familiarity you can expect when reviewing a large body of work.

The important thing though, to me, is the the kindness. I didn't remember that this one also had genuine affection for his characters.

I hadn't planned to reread the other novels as part of this shallow and nostalgic dive, but Rudnick convinced me. Weirdly, he brings out a Jewish mother thing in me, despite him being older than me, and my Southern WASPish upbringing. To put this into context: much as I may have yearned to be Venice, I was Debbie. And I don't feel embarrassed by that. He's a good boy.

Personal copy, and I am loving these vintage dustjackets!

[Kostas Kanellopoulos]

if Stefon from SNL wrote a book about NY hottest clubs in the 80's

[Elliott Aranovitch]

Was this book good? No. Will I be reading more of Paul Rudnick's work in the future? Absolutely.
I found the satire to be overdone in book form. However as Rudnick's primary format is plays I am looking forward to seeing how his unique sense of humor works in a different medium. Overall, has some interesting commentary, I am not mad that I read it.

[Martin Turnbull]

A rather disappointingly pedestrian novel about vacuous club kids in NYC in the 80s. Disappointing because it was written by the same guy who wrote “Jeffrey”, one of the funniest plays I’ve ever seen.

[Vivencio]

being a laugh out loud account of misadventures in ny nightlife; too lesbian for words :D

[Charlaralotte]

I thought, "It's Paul Rudnick. How can I go wrong?"

Yeah, well.

Tedious couple living tedious life of wealthy clubbers in NYC. Some funny bits, but ultimately left with nada.

[xazogomenos laertis]

There really is a way to write horribly oblivious caricatures of people doing horribly oblivious things and still have them be likeable, and this book will teach you how to do it: You just have to love your characters, bro. And if you write about the exploits of these cool losers with such love, your reader will probably follow along, as hollow as the ride might eventually be.

The plot works only to set up a never-ending barrage of jokes and wordplay. If this is your thing, you'll laugh a lot. Sure, a lot of those jokes are dated and all kinds of offensive in this day and age, but I think the satire works better now, exactly because of that. I'm not quite sure this book was extremely well-received back when it was published, but the changing times and a growing sense of class consciousness will make this book an ever more powerful farce.

That said, it's still only good for a laugh and there's not a lot to take seriously or even think about after putting it down. And that's fine. Licky Banes is a fantastically weird and funny character that might stick with you if you're a certain kind of queer person. The love that Guy and Venice share is so cartoonishly wholesome, that it manages to ground other cartoonish aspects of the book and sort of hold them together.

It's plain silly fun dressed in its best dancing outfit. It's uplifting in the same way bumming a cigarette outside the club feels uplifting. For all the debauchery supposedly going on in the background, this book feels like a comforting, TV-14 sitcom from another era.

(Ελληνική έκδοση, "Το Ψώνιο", εκδόσεις Aquarius 1991. Μετάφραση Γιώργος Μπαρουξής.)

[John]

Rudnick’s first novel, a rather too long foray into the mindless exploits of a trio of Studio 55 New York style vapids. The promise of Rudnick’s growing capacity for whip smart humor and great comic dialogue is there. Some very funny lines but not very interesting characters.

[Scott Vandrick]

A witty, social satire which wraps itself into overly complicated world circles with the goal to dazzle and amuse. Rudnick is a keen on wordplay and clever banter leaving the novel’s impact trailing sadly behind.

[Tracey Meisner]

I loved this book when I read it, which was a very long time ago, in a very different place.

[Melissa Mae Palmer]

I really enjoyed! Wow, great book!

[Chris]

If you want to read a book that provides some examples of comedy writing, this might work. It's one-liner after one-liner after one-liner. However, after a while, I just grew tired of the over-the-top, rather mindless set-up of the jokes and the ludricrous satire. That's when the book became geuinely irritating. To complicate matters, there is only the faintest of plots. This book just became a silly, tedious mess. Read Wodehouse, Sedaris, Vowell, Waugh, or even Robert Rodi for much more thorough and better writing that is much more entertaining. I like Rudnick's stuff for the theater so much better.

[Turner]

If you ever thought someone should send-up the late-80s club scene in NYC- heck, for that matter, the 90s club scene there, too, I'm told it was about the same damned thing- then this book is for you.
Funny, sassy, and recognizably by the screenwriter who wrote 'Jeffrey', 'In & Out', and 'Addams' Family Values'- that same sassy and crisp sense of humor.

[RaphaelaLu]

Very strange.... If you've ever lived in NJ or NYC it is a LITTLE weird!

[Jane]

The king - or queen - of great one liners.

[Patrick]

OK, I read this a long, long time ago. I do remember a lot of great and "crunchable" comedy from this book. I must do a re-read soon.

[Gregory Knapp]

A comic masterpiece for The Ages.

One of the funniest books about New York, ever.

It's Beyond.

[Ellie]

Ouch