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lauriel13 's review for:
Brat: An '80s Story
by Andrew McCarthy
I listened to this as an audiobook narrated by Andrew McCarthy. He’s kind of monotone throughout but it is his voice and I enjoyed it.
I had recently watched his documentary about the Brat Pack and found that he had written this book a few years prior. I wasn’t sure exactly if it was going to be similar to the documentary or not. It wasn’t. The book is about his life, mainly in the 80s into the early 90s. His childhood, high school, college, and the early acting gigs that we all know him in.
We learn a lot about his tumultuous relationship with his father, his excessive use of alcohol, how he truly seems a bit scared, nervous, and out of place in the world of acting. He lived in NYC and never really became part of the Hollywood scene. Like he says at one point, he drank a lot in his neighborhood bar, he wasn’t a party animal and he never drank at home. He just sat on a barstool in a corner.
He doesn’t even bring up the Brat Pack until about halfway through the book. Even then it’s more of a blip than the focus. He mentions it again a few more times and the end is basically his thoughts about being a part of it but that it wasn’t something that ever really existed as a core knit group of friends like it was made out to be. That he had not seen or spoken to most of the cast of St. Elmo’s Fire since they finished shooting the movie and that there are a few members of the Brat Pack he’s never met, yet they were made out to be this solidified group.
The book didn’t change much about what I think of Andrew McCarthy. I knew he became a travel writer. I used to get National Geographic Traveler magazine and he wrote articles for it. I knew he has directed tv and more recently gotten back into acting a bit. It seemed to me like he was able to live a good life, doing what he wanted. After watching the documentary I thought he seemed like he was kind of stuck on the past and felt like his career was ruined, that some of the Brat Pack didn’t like him, and that he wanted to be able to move beyond it, like he needed to talk it through with the rest of the group, to kind of go through therapy with them. I didn’t get that same feeling from the book. This made me think he was more naive and introverted. That while he really wanted to be an actor that he wasn’t ready or prepared for all the stuff that comes with it. He got lucky in some cases. He had a lot of people who were kind to him and kind of looked out for him early on. Like Jacqueline Bisset let him live with her after they filmed Class together when he didn’t have anywhere to stay in LA.
Overall I’m glad I listened to the audiobook and it makes me want to read or listen to more autobiographies of Gen X actors.
I had recently watched his documentary about the Brat Pack and found that he had written this book a few years prior. I wasn’t sure exactly if it was going to be similar to the documentary or not. It wasn’t. The book is about his life, mainly in the 80s into the early 90s. His childhood, high school, college, and the early acting gigs that we all know him in.
We learn a lot about his tumultuous relationship with his father, his excessive use of alcohol, how he truly seems a bit scared, nervous, and out of place in the world of acting. He lived in NYC and never really became part of the Hollywood scene. Like he says at one point, he drank a lot in his neighborhood bar, he wasn’t a party animal and he never drank at home. He just sat on a barstool in a corner.
He doesn’t even bring up the Brat Pack until about halfway through the book. Even then it’s more of a blip than the focus. He mentions it again a few more times and the end is basically his thoughts about being a part of it but that it wasn’t something that ever really existed as a core knit group of friends like it was made out to be. That he had not seen or spoken to most of the cast of St. Elmo’s Fire since they finished shooting the movie and that there are a few members of the Brat Pack he’s never met, yet they were made out to be this solidified group.
The book didn’t change much about what I think of Andrew McCarthy. I knew he became a travel writer. I used to get National Geographic Traveler magazine and he wrote articles for it. I knew he has directed tv and more recently gotten back into acting a bit. It seemed to me like he was able to live a good life, doing what he wanted. After watching the documentary I thought he seemed like he was kind of stuck on the past and felt like his career was ruined, that some of the Brat Pack didn’t like him, and that he wanted to be able to move beyond it, like he needed to talk it through with the rest of the group, to kind of go through therapy with them. I didn’t get that same feeling from the book. This made me think he was more naive and introverted. That while he really wanted to be an actor that he wasn’t ready or prepared for all the stuff that comes with it. He got lucky in some cases. He had a lot of people who were kind to him and kind of looked out for him early on. Like Jacqueline Bisset let him live with her after they filmed Class together when he didn’t have anywhere to stay in LA.
Overall I’m glad I listened to the audiobook and it makes me want to read or listen to more autobiographies of Gen X actors.