Short, Sweet and Hilarious !
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As it is so funny, I read this book about every 5 years for a 'top-up'. I always enjoyed the scribings of Clive James in his 'The Observer' articles critiquing TV, so am already attracted to his style of writing.
This volume covers the his first years and, whilst his childhood is not necessarily that remarkable or so different from many other people, it is the way he writes about the various happenings through his life that make it so enjoyable to read.
Admittedly for British readers such as me, there are certain aspects which make it more of an attractive read due to his upbringing being in another country, but the central reason why this book makes me laugh so much is the way he delivers a literary 'punchline'.
The conciseness of the text also means there is little chance the reader will get bored, since no single subject is covered for very long.
This book, along with the following volumes covering his later life on arrival in the UK, is thoroughly recommended !
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Side splittingly funny
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The book that in many ways made his reputation. Absolutely hilarious from start to finish. I first read it as a teenager and woke the whole house up with my laughter at 3am. I simply could not put the book down and I certainly could not stop myself from laughing out loud. Even if you have not enjoyed his other books you will enjoy this one.
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Heroic recollection of an Australian childhood
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"Unrelaible Memoirs" is Clive James' description of his upbringing in a Sydney suburb lasting up to the time of his university education. I was expecting it to be funny but wasn't quite prepared for the raw emotion and literary skill displayed on virtually every page. To me this is perhaps the most impressive of James' autobiographical writing. He has a special gift for describing childhood and a kind of fearless honesty which is hilarious and provides something of a turbulent rollercoaster ride for the reader, as he describes the trauma of being a single child to a single parent in the aftermath of the second world war. I felt a little left behind by many of the historical and literary references James makes but this is more than made up for by the relish with which he uses the English language. For example, he describes a friend's mother giving him buttered bread covered with hundreds and thousands as like "eating a powdered rainbow". "Unreliable Memoirs" made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I wish I had read it years ago.
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An antidote to bad times!
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I have owned this book since its first publishing in paperback and it has stood me in good stead through divorce, depression and hospitilization. In short if black clouds are looming this book will chase them away. Snot snortingly funny, well written and honestly moving. Its the one book I would never want to be without. Buy it - you won't regret it.
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hysterical
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Don't be fooled by the lazy parochialism and tired sarcasm of his most recent tv work: Clive was born to write and this is still his funniest work. I seem to remember a review on the back of the first copy I owned warning people not to read it in public lest the snorting and coughing induced by some of the passages upset people nearby. Unlike 99% of books which contain - at best - deceptive, at worst downright mendacious comments about "laughing out loud" whilst reading, I can't think of another book which more accurately reflects the regular prolapse into stunned incapability purely from his description of some minor disaster or other. His ability to extract wit, slapstick and bathos from the smallest human fallibility or childish escapade is unparalleled and knocks pretty much any contemporary "comic" writer for six. Simply: if you don't laugh whilst reading it, you haven't got a sense of humour
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