Perhaps all of Jonathan Ames’ problems–and the genesis of this hilarious book–can be traced back to the late onset of his puberty. After all it can’t be easy to be sixteen with a hairless “undistinguishable from that of a five year old’s.” This wonderfully entertaining memoir is a touching and humorous look at life in New York City. But this is life for an author who can proclaim “my first sexual experience was rather it was with a prostitute”–an author who can talk about his desire to be a model for the Hair Club for Men and about meeting his son for the first time. Often insightful, sometimes tender, always witty and self-deprecating, What’s Not to Love? is an engaging memoir from one of our most funny, most daring writers.
Author
Jonathan Ames is the author of the books The Double Life is Twice As Good, I Pass Like Night, The Extra Man, What's Not to Love?, My Less Than Secret Life, Wake Up, Sir!, I Love You More Than You Know, and The Alcoholic (a graphic novel illustrated by Dean Haspiel). He is the editor of Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs. He is the winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a former columnist for New York Press. Wake Up, Sir! and The Extra Man are in development as films, with Mr. Ames having written the screenplays. He adapted What's Not to Love? as a TV special for the Showtime network and he played himself. At the time, he said, "It's the role I've been waiting for!" The special aired in December 2007 and January 2008. Mr. Ames has also written a TV pilot for the HBO network, Bored to Death, and this will be filmed in the fall of 2008. The pilot will star Jason Schwartzman as "Jonathan Ames". Bored to Death was originally a short story by Mr. Ames which was published in McSweeney's #24 (fall 2007). In addition to writing, Jonathan Ames performs frequently as a storyteller (often with The Moth) and has been a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman. He has had two amateur boxing matches, fighting as "The Herring Wonder," and he had a one-man show off-off-Broadway, entitled Oedipussy. Mr. Ames had the lead role in the IFC film The Girl Under the Waves and was a porn-extra in the porn film C-Men.
