The Sound of No Hands Clapping: A Memoir

We learn in this witty self-deprecating memoir that it is vulgar and uncool to say "the Industry" when referring to Hollywood films; we must say "the Business." This is one of many funny lessons Toby Young learns when, minding his own business in London, he gets a strange call from a mysterious unnamed Hollywood producer who, having read Toby Young's first book How To Lose Friends And Alienate People, wants Young to write a screenplay about an obscure entertainment figure. Enticed at the prospect of making millions in Hollywood, Young disgruntles his new wife with his chimera quest. The book alternates between Young's Hollywood fiascos and his marital tumult, including the birth of of his first child. The most priceless moments are his correspondences with his friend, the Hollywood writer Rob Young, who teaches him, among other things, how to take a Business Lunch and the "vast repertoire of hand gestures" needed for equals, higher ups, and super bigwigs. These funny moments are part of Young's growing-up process as he becomes disenchanted with the Hollywood Beast. This has the same self-deprecating humor as his first book. For another memoir of disenchantment, check out The Working Stiff's Manifesto by Iaian Levison.

The title riffs off the famous Zen koan, "What is the sound of no hands clapping?" Toby Young's follow-up comic memoir after "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" tells us how to survive when there is egg on your face (thrown by the unclapping audience) and you've just taken a pratfall centerstage. Easy. You laugh at yourself. After all, life is just vaudeville, is it not? While his first book focused on mis-adventures on the glitzy NY fringes, his second takes us mainly (but not exclusively) to Los Angeles and London. In some ways, the theme is the nature of desire and how it can go horribly wrong when you over-shoot your mark. The good news here is his guide, Hollywood Insider Rob Long--wise and witty and a true friend. A found myself looking forward to these sections particularly. The other good news is that freed from a false success by failure, Toby Young backs into a happy life with a balance of marriage, fatherhood, and the just-right metier of the lowbrow British sex farce which he can write with a collaborator. Oh, joy! --Janet Grace Riehl, author Sightlines: A Poet's Diary