Book Review | Booky Wook 2: This Time It's Personal by Russell Brand
Russell Brand’s two book(y wook)s are alike in that they are both realised through his inimitable, mischievously loquacious prose and extroverted, self-abasing sense of humour, however each covers very different ground. My Booky Wook delved into the hitherto-unexplored cradle of neuroses that fashioned an insatiable young biscuit-guzzler into a vertical-haired weapon of mass distraction; Booky Wook 2: This Time It’s Personal tells the story of that weapon’s detonation, and the fallout that would follow.
The era covered gives the volume instant curb appeal as, unlike its predecessor, its cast are almost exclusively already-established celebrities; its key events well-known. The opening chapter, for instance, sees Brand recount his chaotic wooing of Kate Moss, which marked his elevation to the A-list. The closing ones, likewise, relate the opening moves in his romance with Katy Perry, which, at the time of publication, looked like it might prove to be the former junkie’s happy ending.
Through the pages in between, Booky Wook 2 expounds upon the scandals, missteps and spectacular successes that have made its author a global star. With the same self-criticising candour found in his first book(y wook), and indeed much of his stand-up comedy, Brand cheerfully dissects his near-ruinous slip-ups, while expressing surprisingly humble bewilderment at his Hollywood victories – it’s as if he can’t quite believe that they’ve happened. Along the way, he reveals new sides to everyone from hypnotist Paul “Is the bitch fucking with your melon?” McKenna to his teenage idol Morrissey, pasting in personal e-mail correspondence as evidence of his absolute transparency (or disinclination to fill up his word count with new material, if you’re feeling cynical).
Indeed, I have but one gripe with Booky Wook 2, and it’s that great swathes of it have been lazily lifted from Brand’s stand-up material. His musings on hosting MTV’s VMAs and “Sachsgate” comprise almost verbatim transcripts of his riotous on-stage analyses, right down to his wry digital ripostes to e-mailed death threats. Fortunately this material is so uproarious that it warrants reiteration, but if you’re reading this book shortly after watching Brand’s Scandalous DVD, or his scandalous DVD repackaging of almost the exact same gig as Live in New York City, then you’ll probably find it a little tired.
Once again though, “Rustle” (as Morrissey calls him) Brand has delivered an irrefutably witty and page-turning text. Though it lacks the disarming profundity that characterised his Booky Wook’s first incarnation, Brand’s follow-up still offers humorous, and occasionally horrifyingly honest, insight into the mind of a man whose euphoric madness is eclipsed only by that of his gravity-defying tresses.
