Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Indulgent but enjoyable none the less April 28, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
A strange one, this. Having launched himself into the mainstream with "Where Did It All Go Right", Andrew Collins continues his amiable, eminently readable memoirs from growing up in the safe, harmless 1970s of his debut work to this, his student-angst-ridden account of his "difficult years", the self-obsessed, frothy 1980s.
However, while I could relate to an awful lot of "WDIAGR", I found it difficult to find much in common with Collins as he morphed into a peacock-preening Thompson Twins singer lookalike and mooched his way through the early 1980s at art college. He described his awkward years perfectly - simultaneously confident yet self-conscious. Yet somehow I found it all just a tad tedious at times and even smug, as if Collins was proud of his own terminal self-deprecation. Furthermore, how many more middle-class thirty-forty somethings can we bear describing, girl by girl, all their (apparently) gorgeous girlfriends in such detail ? Nick Hornby opened this particular Pandora's Box, and it seemingly just will not shut. Collins also spends pages detailing the minutiae of his student life - renting flats and so on. Somehow, though, it did strike a chord with me and much of it was uncannily familar to my own experiences.
It is also terribly depressing to hear how Collins became so earnest, such a "new man", and positively stomach-churning when he describes how he and all his student friends would watch Ben Elton's "Saturday Night Live" and break into spontaneous applause as Elton made another "right on" pronouncement - a veritable Nuremberg rally of new men, indeed. Collins' admittance that he was terrified of getting AIDS took me back to those paranoid times, but I couldn't believe he had never used a condom before. His reaction was not to start using them, but simply to abstain altogether !
It made me feel a lot better, though, when Collins admitted that in his first voting election, in 1983, he voted TORY. Ha ha ! At least I never did that ! He also currently writes for "The Daily Mail" - very revolutionary, I must say.
Overall, it is a pleasant enough read, if only to make one feel pleased that one is not, or ever has been, remotely like Andrew Collins.
 Better than the others! June 19, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have read many books of normal people growing up in the seventies/eighties but this has got to be my favourite.
I launched into the book not expecting much, just for a simple and easy read. It is easy to read but it's hard to stop laughing at some of the chapters! The book builds up and, for me, got funnier. It maybe the authors intension or it may just be me but I was laughing so hard towards the end of the book.
The part about the author and his friend reluctantly going back to mum and dad after their accommodation's high ceiling comes crashing down was wonderfully written. And his psycho girlfriend and their differences, we've all know a girl like that!
Don't expect to be bombarded with eighties references, that's not the point of this book. Its a simple story of struggling away from home and entering the real world.
An extremely enjoyable, easy read!
student days June 21, 2006
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
There weren't such generous grants when I was a student and I never did manage to get a place on campus, but this recollection of Andrew Collins' experiences took me back to the rollercoaster ride of living away from home for the first time and negotiating a whole new set of rules to live by.
The terrible student houses, the excitement of seeing the members of a band you idolise, the ups and downs of friendship and love. The only thing that I questioned in the book, as I rushed through it because I was enjoying it so much, is that he comes across as very honourable and nice. Most of the arty student males I knew wouldn't be so blemish-free and I wouldn't have either, but that is the only bad thing I can say about it.
 Reader in a coma... April 17, 2006
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
Why on earth the writer thinks his insipid student days are worthy of a book I have no idea.
I only finished the book to fuel my bile towards this self-absorbed wet blanket. He was self-absorbed in the book and is obviously no less so now for having bothered to write about his tiny dull little student life and to think anyone else would be interested. Obviously being part of the London media set he managed to get a couple of mates to write some not too diss-ing reviews, But really anyone who does not know the guy would come away feeling you have read the kind of vanity publishing that normally only gets a print run by replying to an ad in a Sunday Paper... You want to be a published writer?
Initially I thought the book might be amusing and it seemed to strike a few familiar cords...I was a student in London just a few years later. But it degenerated into bland regurgitation of his not very interesting diaries. Towards the end of the book the padding is painfully obvious.
Heaven knows I've wasted my money March 14, 2006
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
I agree with the the previous reviewer- this is a self-indulgent autobiography by someone who thinks they are hip and wacky. I wouldn't mind but there's no rebellion, gripping narrative, or charm in this book. He's basically just a Smiths fan (even more boring and self-indulgent) going thru the motions of being a student. The only use I can find for this book is if you run out of loo roll, like most students do!
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