Bad Dreams

In BAD DREAMS, author Anthony Haden-Guest tells a true story of a group of trendy Upper East Side Yuppie New Yorkers in the late 1970s. The cast of mostly unsympathetic and shallow characters includes, among others, fashion models, drug dealers, horse trainers, and more bartenders than you've probably read about in one place. A great deal of their time is spent making money in questionably legal ways, drinking excessively, and eating out at fine and trendy restaurants. No one in this story EVER cooks. The entire narrative revolves around one Howard "Buddy" Jacobson, a highly intelligent and driven man who is also a self-centered, lying, sociopath who values his associates by how much use - sexual, financial, whatever - he can derive from them. There is of course a murder and a trial. But this is no simple true crime book. BAD DREAMS is a complicated and convoluted story with sub-plots, and occasionally sub-sub-plots. It is dense with detail and contains a seemingly endless cast of characters. It is long. And it is NEVER boring. Hayden-Guest has done massive research for the book, and has managed to tell in a coherent and highly entertaining manner a story that would become impossible to follow in the hands of a lesser writer. In this 468 page book, there is no repetition and, astoundingly to this constant reader of true crime, absolutely no filler. Everything Mr. Hayden-Guest includes has a purpose. The ultimate result is a fascinating story, brilliantly told. Not only is BAD DREAMS a must read for true crime fans, but it is a book that should appeal to other readers as well.