June 13th, 2009 Graig
I saw the movie (see “all new #92″) and as a result read Toby Young’s follow-up (see “all new #106″) but this is really what I was after, the real dirt on Young’s experience inside the walls of Vanity Fair for a few years in the mid 1990’s.
Now, really, I don’t care all that much about the gossip mongering — as shameless, prolific and entertaining as it is in the book — it’s more Young’s take on New York, and America, the glamour system, the hierarchy, the food chain, the class system that is intriguing. Young’s rather elite British pedigree and well educated background make him an unlikely aficionado of the American celebrity scene, and yet, it was his calling to follow, fawn over and exploit, and he does it with wit and self deprecation.
But the book is about more than ratting on the who’s who inside Vanity Fair and relaying as much of his Hollywood gossip as he can, it’s a polemic on an entire culture, a denouncement of an entire class of people as vapid, empty, egomaniacal, self-centered, pathetic, lonely people, and how, above all else, how they make people feel bad for not being a part of it. After reading this book, the glitz and glamor of being a celebrity suddenly looks like a lot of work for what is only material reward, and the price you pay for materialism somehow just doesn’t seem worth it.
Young comes off as a bit of an addict to the celebrity scene, as much as he knows and logically understands how absolutely awful and soulless it is, he desperately wants to be in on it. But, it this, and his follow up book prove anything, it’s better for one’s sanity to constantly be on the outside looking in, retaining some objectivity and some sense of self than it is to be sucked in and willing to do anything to stay there no matter how denigrating.
The most fascinating aspect of the book is Young’s comparisons of the British class system with the American class system, equally championing and damning both. His intellect, as well as his humour, is ever present throughout, and it’s a highly insightful and entertaining read. The film, as enjoyable as it was, was pretty empty compare to this tome, and it only gloms onto a few of the more irreverent incidents and personalities in the book, capturing much of the intent, but overlooking so much of the insight.
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