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balletbookworm's review against another edition
4.0
An interesting meta-memoir (Diamond's memoir, a little John Hughes biography/filmography, and a little "how this book came into being"). In a year that seemed to have several books and movies that brought back 80s nostalgia, Diamond's book doesn't look back with yearning - he looks back with something akin to relief and maybe a little irritation that he didn't get what was promised him in the movies. His childhood was not easy, his family life was far from ideal, he was homeless for several years in his teens, and the glowing Shermer, IL promised on the screen (Diamond grew up in those same Chicago suburbs amalgamated into the Hughes backdrop) didn't exist for him. The book Diamond made is how you get up everyday and keep going.
If you are looking for an actual Hughes bio, read the blurb and try again.
If you are looking for an actual Hughes bio, read the blurb and try again.
portlandjess's review against another edition
4.0
Absolutely way more memoir than references to John Hughes, but I like what the author was doing here. By using the movies and the director to describe his life growing up, he was able to share about a rough childhood without being as exposed as he may have been with a traditional memoir. At times, his complaining about stuff that had happened ten-fifteen years prior was tedious, but then he came back by stating "I was riding the wave of my teenage pretention well into my late twenties" and made me laugh - he knew what he was doing all along in this book. Who hasn't felt like a failure at times, stuck in the past, dwelling on what could have been? Jason Diamond was relatable and I was rooting for him to win at life.
snowmaiden's review against another edition
4.0
Between the title and the aggressively pink cover, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this book is some kind of light, frothy confection, but it's not. Jason Diamond was once a kid with a laundry list of psychiatric diagnoses whose father beat him and mother abandoned him. Somehow he made it to adulthood, partly by imagining that he could have a life like the kids in John Hughes movies, kids like Ferris Bueller or any of the characters Molly Ringwald played. When he decided he wanted to become a writer, naturally he focused on John Hughes and decided to write a book about him.
This is not that book. Instead, this is the story of all the changes Diamond went through while trying to write that book. He's very candid about his struggles with angst and depression. As he lurches back and forth between Chicago and New York, just hoping to find someone that will care about him and give him a reason to settle down, one can't help but feel that he is his own worst enemy and that things are never really as bad as he imagines them to be. Along the way, he learns a lot about John Hughes and a lot more about himself.
Although Diamond eventually jettisoned the monstrosity of a book to which he devoted five years of his life, I can't help feeling that he did accomplish his goal. While this isn't a scholarly biography of John Hughes, he peppers the text with loads of information he picked up along the way. I went into this book thinking I knew nothing of the famous director, but by the time I was finished, I knew quite a lot. Jason Diamond did write a book about John Hughes, but he wrote an even better one about himself.
(Note: I received my copy of the book through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.)
This is not that book. Instead, this is the story of all the changes Diamond went through while trying to write that book. He's very candid about his struggles with angst and depression. As he lurches back and forth between Chicago and New York, just hoping to find someone that will care about him and give him a reason to settle down, one can't help but feel that he is his own worst enemy and that things are never really as bad as he imagines them to be. Along the way, he learns a lot about John Hughes and a lot more about himself.
Although Diamond eventually jettisoned the monstrosity of a book to which he devoted five years of his life, I can't help feeling that he did accomplish his goal. While this isn't a scholarly biography of John Hughes, he peppers the text with loads of information he picked up along the way. I went into this book thinking I knew nothing of the famous director, but by the time I was finished, I knew quite a lot. Jason Diamond did write a book about John Hughes, but he wrote an even better one about himself.
(Note: I received my copy of the book through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.)
kjboldon's review against another edition
4.0
I feel like many of the low ratings for this book are because people wanted a different book than the one this is. This is a solid, heart-breaking memoir about an abused, abandoned kid who longs for the comfortable life portrayed in John Hughes movies. He gets the idea to write a book on Highes, spends years chasing that dream, then figures out that embracing real life is better than chasing after the imaginary one represented by Hughes. This is not a bio of Hughes or a deep dive into his films. Its Jason's tragic story with a happy ending, one with a lot less John Hughes than many readers seem to have wanted. Read it as a very good Gen X memoir with lots of Hughes info and related pop culture, and you'll get what you came for.
lisa2082's review against another edition
4.0
So much like everyone else, I though this was going to be a biography about John Hughes and an go in depth about the characters we all know and love like Ferris Bueller. Instead, it is one man's journey finally dealing with his horrible childhood (physically abusive father, mentally abusive mother) and then adulthood in Brooklyn, New York. He realizes the only time he was happy in childhood was watching John Hughes films. He then goes on a whirlwind adventure searching for the man who had such an impact on his life, including driving up and down the famous ritzy "north shore" area of Chicago where most of Hughes films took place.
I originally picked this for my library's book club, who's theme was authors from Illinois. Although it was not what I expected, I enjoyed this book and would read another one of his books if he chose to write one.
I originally picked this for my library's book club, who's theme was authors from Illinois. Although it was not what I expected, I enjoyed this book and would read another one of his books if he chose to write one.
therudielibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
Part love letter to John Hughes, part memoir or self-discovery, this is the kind of book that any punk-rock-outsider can relate to. Equal parts pain and hope, I enjoyed this book thoroughly.