The Sound of No Hands Clapping: A Memoir

by Toby Young Narrated by Simon Vance

Overview

The highly anticipated sequel to the best-selling-and laugh-out-loud funny How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.



When even his friends refer to him in print as "a balding, bug-eyed opportunist with the looks of a beach ball, the charisma of a glove-puppet, and an ego the size of a Hercules supply plane," the odds of Toby Young scoring-in any sense-appear to be slim. But then How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, his account of the five years he spent trying (and failing) to take Manhattan, improbably catapults Toby to bestsellerdom, and his book is translated into twelve languages, including American.



Now Tinseltown beckons.



After receiving a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity from a big Hollywood producer, Toby sets his sights anew on a high-flying career, this time on the West Coast. But it doesn't take long for Toby's fabled "brown thumb" and self-sabotaging instincts to reassert themselves. On the home front, though, things seem to be looking up: Toby manages to persuade his girlfriend to marry him and move to Los Angeles-but then she decides to abandon her promising legal career in order to become a fulltime homemaker . . . and mother. Toby's increasingly hapless attempts to pursue a glamorous showbiz career while buried in diapers will strike a chord with all modern fathers struggling to find the right work/life balance . . . and with their utterly exasperated wives.



Failure-and fatherhood-have never been funnier.

Editorial Reviews

As Toby Young's wife ruefully noted, nobody could accuse her of marrying him for money: "I'd been fired as the Evening Standard's New York columnist, fired as a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, fired as The Independent's New York columnist, fired as a staff writer at Gear. The only thing I'd learned was what not to say when you've been fired." In this welcome follow-up to How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Young brings us up to date on his journalistic assignments, which include posing as a patient as a penis enlargement clinic and as a greeter at a Wal-Mart. Hilarity in the midst of misfortune.

Jane Magazine

Throughout all the stupid, self-defeating and despicable things he does, he's still weirdly likable.

Village Voice

The most successful professional failurist imaginable.

Publishers Weekly

British journalist Young scored big with How to Lose Friends and Influence People, a dishy account of his dire mishaps in the world of glossy New York magazine publishing, and inevitably came to Hollywood's attention. Though his own book was considered, a more lucrative writing offer came from a big-league producer, known here only as "-- --," or "Mr. Hollywood," who wanted "a biopic about a notorious '70s record producer," who was also "a spectacularly unpleasant human being." This would seem to be a sufficient frame for a follow-up about misadventures in the magazine world, but curiously, it isn't. Instead, Young wanders (literally) all over the map, recounting his experiences on his book tour; as a newlywed and new father; as a screen-writing student, underqualified drama critic and monologist. Naturally, nothing goes right in this unfocused memoir. Young gets in some good anecdotes, but the outcome of the Hollywood adventure is obvious from the start-marital bliss is, alas, less compelling than laddishness; an anonymous producer and subject are no match for colorful Graydon Carter and Vanity Fair. 100,000 first printing. (July) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Marriage, kids and Hollywood make it tough for the author of How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2002) to continue his career as a personal and professional failure. When we left the author at the end of his previous anecdotal memoir, he seemed to have brought a modicum of order to his haphazard life; marriage was to follow his move back to London. But as he takes up the reins in this further series of recollections, the plans for his impending nuptials are characteristically disorganized, while the astonishing offer of a screenwriting job from an unnamed Hollywood bigwig looms large. Young wants to move to L.A. to pursue this dream assignment, but readers of his previous tome won't be surprised to learn that he hasn't informed his bride-to-be, the long-suffering Caroline, of these plans. The subsequent events, which see Caroline getting pregnant not once but twice, the ill-fated move to L.A. finally taking place and Young trying to become a playwright, are told with the author's by-now familiar mix of pathos and wit. In fact, Young sticks a little too closely to the structure and style that made his previous book such an enjoyable read. Once again, he peppers his revelations with conversational pieces from a confidant (hotshot producer Rob Long, who replaces writer Alex de Silva from last time around), and he reveals nothing about himself that wasn't covered last time around. Young still manages to demonstrate his considerable skills as a gossipy raconteur, but only in all-too-brief flashes; his amusingly desperate pursuit of a Hollywood producer with a paparazzi photographer is a particular highlight. But his desire to portray himself as a failure is weakened after success raises itsugly head a few too many times. A pointless sequel. First printing of 100,000

FEB/MAR 07 - AudioFile

Simon Vance zestfully reads the self-deprecating annals of the author's attempts to achieve fame as a writer. Young's ambition is to become a successful screenwriter, but his path to success becomes an obstacle course as he bumps into the power people in Hollywood. In his reading, Vance makes sure that listeners enjoy Young's entertaining stories of the disappointments and mistakes he makes in the pursuit of his career. Vance's positive energy gives the author's words a hilarity that makes one want to hear more and more of the book. When you can't tell the difference between who wrote it and who is reading it and you don't really care, that's entertainment. J.P. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170893744
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	07/15/2006
Edition description:	Unabridged

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