Toby Young's popular memoir "How to Lose
Friends and
Alienate people" is
an amiable wander around the egos of New York's
Glitterati. The first
half of the book is very, very funny. Young's British nature, laid-back and very human, conflicts with American insecurities and
egos from his very first taxi ride in New York City. It is amusing to
read of his antics as he begins a career-making job as an editor for
Vanity Fair. Numerous ironies abound from the outset as Vanity Fair
defines itself as America's Voice of the glittering elite; it
is a voice spoken by Canadian Graydon Carter. Young attempts to
meet the famous and infamous and time after time fails with greater and
greater notoriety. It is like reading a Monty Python movie: slapstick
humour written in a hilarious manner. However,the latter part of the book is a
more difficult read. Young is unquestionably bright and that, perhaps,
is what makes the material harder. As he attempts to compare de
Toqueville's view of the United States with the real thing, the book
loses some of its humour. Not that Young isn't right nor
uninteresting, just the message doesn't read as well. It is not funny
and somewhat pompous. Young's self-righteous view rather skewers the
ambitions of Young the writer of the first half of the book. It is better to
say the Glitterati are full of hot air than to justify the opinion with
quotes from de Toqueville and even from Horace. Young seems
to confuse ordinary Americans and their dreams with the greedy
ambitions of the New York A-list. Further, Young introduces the idea of "meritocracy" and applies it generally to the people
of the United States; his opinion is sadly based on his experiences
with a limited number of New Yorkers. Young's greatest failing in the
latter half of the book is his own failure to realize his search for
the idolized members of the Algonquin room, great writers of the American past,
is actually a futile quest. There are two books, here. For humour, the first half of "How to Lose
Friends and
Alienate People" will suffice. Should one be interested in a political consideration of the merits and realities of American democracy and the implications of the practise of meritocracy, the second half will do. I am not so sure, however, the two work well together.