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A review by lucyyj26
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography by Eric Idle
2.0
Originally written: 05/03.19.
Going in, I wasn't sure what to expect.
Perhaps a retelling of his early life, through to his work with The Boys™, Monty Python. In the beginning at least, I got that.
He talked about the death of his father during the war and his mother subsequently sending him off to a frankly abusive military school. He talked about how he evolved to cope with life there (take a guess), and suddenly a lot of things made sense. Also, his relationship with George Harrison was great. The funni boys™ meet the music boys™ and my skin is made clear by it.
All good stuff.
There's... something, about the rest of the book though, that I don't like. I think the issue is that I was there to read about his days with the Python Boys™ and there really wasn't all that much of that. Every time he began to talk about them, or the Flying Circus show, or any of their films, he seemed to quickly switch subjects, onto one of his Many Famous Friends™. I was in there looking for Behind the Scenes info on the Life of Brian and Eric was busy spiraling into a page spanning description of Celebrity Party No. 523.
Eric, my man, you're famous. You don't need to name drop, bro, it's all good for you!
Never before have I read an autobiography where the name-dropping stands out so much that at some point midway through, I began keeping a tally (since lost, sadly). More than once I thought, "Christ, he's reeling another list off!" This made several chapters a real slog to get through, because the only parts of these parties worth mentioning were the people there; the actual goings-on aren't much worth remembrance. I can't even recall any of them now.
I think Requiem For A Bomb-Ass Party #3004 featured a cocaine boat.
Going in, I wasn't sure what to expect.
Perhaps a retelling of his early life, through to his work with The Boys™, Monty Python. In the beginning at least, I got that.
He talked about the death of his father during the war and his mother subsequently sending him off to a frankly abusive military school. He talked about how he evolved to cope with life there (take a guess), and suddenly a lot of things made sense. Also, his relationship with George Harrison was great. The funni boys™ meet the music boys™ and my skin is made clear by it.
All good stuff.
There's... something, about the rest of the book though, that I don't like. I think the issue is that I was there to read about his days with the Python Boys™ and there really wasn't all that much of that. Every time he began to talk about them, or the Flying Circus show, or any of their films, he seemed to quickly switch subjects, onto one of his Many Famous Friends™. I was in there looking for Behind the Scenes info on the Life of Brian and Eric was busy spiraling into a page spanning description of Celebrity Party No. 523.
Eric, my man, you're famous. You don't need to name drop, bro, it's all good for you!
Never before have I read an autobiography where the name-dropping stands out so much that at some point midway through, I began keeping a tally (since lost, sadly). More than once I thought, "Christ, he's reeling another list off!" This made several chapters a real slog to get through, because the only parts of these parties worth mentioning were the people there; the actual goings-on aren't much worth remembrance. I can't even recall any of them now.
I think Requiem For A Bomb-Ass Party #3004 featured a cocaine boat.