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Narrated by Roger Wayne
Jason DiamondUnabridged — 7 hours, 49 minutes
Narrated by Roger Wayne
Jason DiamondUnabridged — 7 hours, 49 minutes
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For all fans of John Hughes and his hit films such as National Lampoon's Vacation, Sixteen Candles, and Home Alone, comes Jason Diamond's hilarious memoir of growing up obsessed with the iconic filmmaker's movies-a preoccupation that eventually convinces Diamond he should write Hughes' biography and travel to New York City on a quest that is as funny as it is hopeless.
For as long as Jason Diamond can remember, he's been infatuated with John Hughes' movies. From the outrageous, raunchy antics in National Lampoon's Vacation to the teenage angst in The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink to the insanely clever and unforgettable Home Alone, Jason could not get enough of Hughes' films. And so the seed was planted in his mind that it should fall to him to write a biography of his favorite filmmaker. It didn't matter to Jason that he had no qualifications, training, background, platform, or direction. Thus went the years-long, delusional, earnest, and assiduous quest to reach his goal. But no book came out of these years, and no book will. What he did get was a story that fills the pages of this unconventional, hilarious memoir.
In Searching for John Hughes, Jason tells how a Jewish kid from a broken home in a Chicago suburb-sometimes homeless, always restless-found comfort and connection in the likewise broken lives in the suburban Chicago of John Hughes' oeuvre. He moved to New York to become a writer. He started to write a book he had no business writing. In the meantime, he brewed coffee and guarded cupcake cafes. All the while, he watched John Hughes movies religiously.
Though his original biography of Hughes has long since been abandoned, Jason has discovered he is a writer through and through. And the adversity of going for broke has now been transformed into wisdom. Or, at least, a really, really good story.
In other words, this is a memoir of growing up. One part big dream, one part big failure, one part John Hughes movies, one part Chicago, and one part New York. It's a story of what comes after the “Go for it!” part of the command to young creatives to pursue their dreams-no matter how absurd they might seem at first.
I'm not sure Diamond gets enough about Hughes into the book…but he has successfully negotiated the writer's most important rite of passage: He makes himself matter, first to himself and then to us.
09/12/2016
In his memoir, Rolling Stone editor Diamond relates the story of his failed attempt to write a biography of director John Hughes while working in Manhattan coffee shops and being almost too pretentious to stomach. Diamond grew up in the Chicago suburbs that inspired much of Hughes’s early work and escaped a broken home (abusive father, runaway mother) to scrape by in New York City, where he eventually began compiling his biography of Hughes. In between depressive episodes and alcohol-fueled bad decisions, Diamond plugs away at the book; when no sources are forthcoming, he resorts to lying to publicists, stalking, and outright inventing tales of Hughes’s day-to-day life (which, alongside factual discrepancies, make it difficult to discern any truth from Diamond’s accounts) to move the manuscript forward. All this, combined with Diamond’s disdain for (and discomfort with) everyone around him, makes it extremely difficult to empathize with him as a 20-something. Diamond’s book may appeal to Hughes die-hards, but readers simply looking for a fresh memoir should look elsewhere. (Nov.)
Tells a heartbreaking story of restless youth, imposter syndrome, and the movies that help him make sense of it all...Makes me wnat to tell my parents and children how much I love them...and then curl up on the couch and watch The Breakfast Club.” — Emma Straub, author of the New York Times bestsellers Modern Lovers and The Vacationers
“With geniality, humor and charm, Diamond explores the ways in which cinematic fantasy can influence, overshadow, and help us to escape reality. This book is for anyone playing out an eternal adolescence.” — Melissa Broder, author of So Sad Today
“Jason Diamond writes with equal parts wit and candor about what happens when life diverges wildly from the suburban fairytales made popular by John Hughes. Diamond passionately conveys how lovely it is when we find less cinematic but harder earned happy endings on our own terms.” — Maris Kreizman, author of Slaughterhouse 90210
“Oh look, it’s all my favorite things in one book: Chicago, New York City, punk rock, food, and existential crises...Bittersweet, charming and hilarious...details the longing and struggle of an aspiring writer with clarity, wit, and heart.” — Jami Attenberg, New York Times bestselilng author of The Middlesteins and Saint Mazie
“Both funny and heartbreaking, Diamond’s memoir is not just an account of how one director’s films impacted-and perhaps saved-his life. It is also a memorable reflection on what it means to let go of the past and grow up. A quirkily intelligent memoir of finding oneself in movies.” — Kirkus Reviews
With geniality, humor and charm, Diamond explores the ways in which cinematic fantasy can influence, overshadow, and help us to escape reality. This book is for anyone playing out an eternal adolescence.
Tells a heartbreaking story of restless youth, imposter syndrome, and the movies that help him make sense of it all...Makes me wnat to tell my parents and children how much I love them...and then curl up on the couch and watch The Breakfast Club.
Oh look, it’s all my favorite things in one book: Chicago, New York City, punk rock, food, and existential crises...Bittersweet, charming and hilarious...details the longing and struggle of an aspiring writer with clarity, wit, and heart.
Jason Diamond writes with equal parts wit and candor about what happens when life diverges wildly from the suburban fairytales made popular by John Hughes. Diamond passionately conveys how lovely it is when we find less cinematic but harder earned happy endings on our own terms.
Sept. 6, 2016
A Brooklyn-based writer and editor’s memoir about how watching John Hughes films as an adolescent gave meaning to his troubled life.Rolling Stone sports editor Diamond grew up a member of the Jewish minority in suburban Chicago. For the first few years of his life, his mother and his candy manufacturer father lived an American dream that included “two cars [and]…a house…built with the money made from rotting the teeth of children who could only afford to spend a quarter on snacks.” His life changed dramatically after his parents divorced. By the time he was 7, he had attended four different schools and become “the weird kid [whom] nobody knew.” It was then that a babysitter introduced him to Hughes’ Pretty in Pink, which immediately became his favorite film for the comfort it gave him that even kids who were different could “still be cool.” As Diamond grew older and began watching more of Hughes’ movies, he found that they helped him to make sense of things like the social divisions in high school, where “everyone had his or her place, just like in a Hughes movie.” But then his mother, who could not cope with their rocky, adversarial relationship, moved away and left her son to fend for himself. Clinically depressed, homeless, and often drunk or high, Diamond turned even more to Hughes’ feel-good films to help him make sense of an unforgiving world. He then moved to New York, where he decided that he would write the director’s biography. After spending most of his 20s bouncing between Chicago and New York, often unhappy and endlessly revising a book he would never publish, his life finally came together. Both funny and heartbreaking, Diamond’s memoir is not just an account of how one director’s films impacted—and perhaps saved—his life. It is also a memorable reflection on what it means to let go of the past and grow up. A quirkily intelligent memoir of finding oneself in movies.
| BN ID: | 2940173466594 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 11/29/2016 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Scaachi Koul, the author of “One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of this Will Matter” on writing online and at length — with a bonus explanation of Canada.
