Cocktail M

I must admit, Cocktail (the movie) is one of my guilty pleasures. I can quote every line and know every bad joke (too many to count). My interest in the movie led me to the book which I just finished last night. It's a quick read (344 pgs) but be warned, its storyline strays from the movie very quickly though both works share the same author. My guess is that Cruise, still hot off Top Gun, was called in and the producers suddenly needed something with less grit and more flash. Flanagan, as played by Cruise, does exist in these pages but only briefly. By the time this book starts up we're hanging with a guy 38, been there, done that, more quips than Oscar Wilde, more bite than a pool of piranhas and too weary to care about any of it. Which is to say we're looking at the story of Coughlin in the movie. A guy who started slinging shots in the mid-sixties, suffered the ranting idealism of the hippies while enjoying the free sex and drug culture that accompanied it. The book feels like a hangover from the party that was the early seventies (the loft scene in Serpico comes to mind) with Flanagan, once the star in the center of it all, counting his days, shots, and lays until someone or something will let us know the 'bar's closed' so he can call it a life. The main difference between this Flanagan and the movie character, aside from world-weariness and age, is ambition. The book character is that career proletariat Coughlin described in the movie but he knows it and doesn't feel there's any other choice than bite the bullet and play the role his talents destined him to. The only thing he is good at is pouring liquor and running his mouth but he doesn't need an epiphany of any sort to reach that conclusion. His only hope, and a characteristically selfish one at that, is for a rich young girl to come to his rescue, not that he can trust any woman enough to let such a thing happen. He needs dumb luck and he'll be the first to admit he's been blessed with everything except the ability to find a happy ending. Is this the curse of all working-class genius's? Will he be serving rounds to the corpses under the Brooklyn Bridge or will his knightette in a shining limo throw a net over him before it's too late? Had the movie never been made I never would have heard of this book. Had the book been noticed anyone who walked out of the movie would have demanded a refund and we probably wouldn't have suffered as many bad Tom Cruise tabloid escapades. This book is a hidden gem. Perhaps one day they'll do a tasteful, thoughtful, well-acted remake that it deserved- but where will they find another Bryan Brown to play Flanagan?

I've bought this book many, many times, because I always recommend it and people always keep it. Put the movie out of your mind. This is a gritty, hilarious, tragic story about what it means to make your living poisoning others and spend your spare time poisoning yourself. Redemption is available, but it's not cheap, and maybe not even wanted.

A former bartender myself, I found the book to be very insightful, and humerous as it followed the life of a career bartender trying to make the most out of his situation. This book gives a very truthful look at the life behind the Neon of the bar.

The worst movie of the 1980's is actually the funniest book of the 1980's.Read this book. Despite the time it was written, it is not dated. I read this 10 years after it was printed and I howled with laughter. Gould has a way with words, a keen sense of observation and a breakneck pace.

Although changed for the movie, the original book, "Cocktail" dipped into the near psychotic ravings of a middle aged bartender who had seen one too many last-calls. Each page is riviting with the colorful dramatization unique to Gould. Having been a world traveled bartender for 10 years now, I was amazed and thrilled to see an incredibly accurate insight into the thrilling yet seedy existance of a part-time job gone career. A must read for anyone who has ever looked at a clever, hot-shot bartender and thought that he had it made. Change the names and list this novel under non-fiction. Two thumbs up from bartenders everywhere!