BOOKS | Everybody thinks they’re interesting. Few people actually are. So are memoirs worth reading?

Sometimes? Basically, memoirs are a bit of a crap shoot.

That said, some people do have good stories to tell. The best memoirs read like novels, others are inspiring, and plenty invoke a particular lost time, or reveal a whole lot of Hollywood gossip. Here, three new memoirs that exemplify this risky, but interesting genre:

Yes Man by Danny Wallace

In the “yes manifesto” author Danny Wallace states, “I swear I will say yes to every favour, request, suggestion and invitation. I swear I will say yes where once I would have said no.” That’s the premise of this new memoir. Once a sad, dumped by his girlfriend, near-shut-in, 27 year old Wallace changed his life when he decided to take the advice of a fellow bus patron and start being more agreeable.

It’s a very twenty-something concept and a very twenty-something book. It’s also charmingly Seinfeldian, full of random ramblings, and highly focused on the inconsequential. You’ll either find it funny or annoyingly full of itself.

The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue by Robert Klein

Amorous? Total horn dog is more like it. And considering the dad-like cover photo, that’s a fairly disturbing idea.

Klein’s a long-time comedian, famous for his album, Child of the ‘50s, and this book is in the same vein. It’s about Klein’s days growing up in a Jewish family in New York City, going to the Yale Drama School, being part of a frat (oh, great), and working a bunch of different pre-comedy jobs.

The most engaging part of the book is the discussion of Klein’s time at Second City in Chicago, but he doesn’t get to it until the very end of the book. (He might be holding out for a volume two, but I’m personally not riveted enough to bother waiting.)

Breathing Out by Peggy Lipton

Dose readers probably won’t remember Lipton from the The Mod Squad or her (once noteworthy) marriage to now-ex Quincy Jones, but in this new memoir, she sets out to let you know that she was pretty damn famous.

The book is all about Lipton’s days as a 60s fashionista who participating ever-so-fully in the sexual revolution. It’s more than a bit fluffy, and lacks wider social insight, but if you’re a gossip hound with a pop culture addiction, you might find it fun. Lipton claims affairs with everyone from Paul McCartney to Elvis. She loved him tender, baby.

A version of this piece about memoirs worth reading was published in Dose on August 15, 2005. See clipping below. More books and authors stuff is here.

Published in Dose, August 15, 2005.