Brat
An '80s Story
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4.3 • 44 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Fans of Patti Smith's Just Kids and Rob Lowe's Stories I Only Tell My Friends will love this beautifully written, entertaining and bracingly honest memoir by an actor, director and author who found his start as a 1980s Hollywood Brat pack member.
Most people know Andrew McCarthy from his roles in movies like Pretty in Pink and St Elmo's Fire, and as a charter member of Hollywood's Brat Pack. That iconic group of ingenues and heart throbs, including Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez and Demi Moore, has come to represent both a genre of film and an era of pop culture.
In Brat, McCarthy focuses his gaze on that singular moment in time and the most defining moments of his youth. The result is a revealing look at coming of age in a maelstrom, reckoning with conflicted ambition, innocence, addiction and expectations of masculinity. New York City of the 1980s is brought to vivid life, from scoring joints in Washington Square Park to skipping school in favour of the dark revival houses of the Village where he fell in love with the movies that would change his life.
Brat is at once an exclusive window into a defining period of pop-culture history and a surprising, intimate story of an outsider caught up in a most unwitting success.
‘Wit, wisdom, and a depth of honesty that resonates to your core’ Demi Moore
‘Explores masculinity, success, the dangers of fame, ambition and cigarettes in an elegant and humorous coming of age story’ Candace Bushnell
‘Absorbing, thoughtful, and sometimes painfully honest … a fascinating read’ Jay McInerney
‘A riveting portrait of the artist as a young man’ Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The star of seminal 1980s coming-of-age movies St. Elmo's Fire and Pretty in Pink looks back on a decade that was more angsty for him than for his characters in this heartfelt memoir. Actor McCarthy (The Longest Way Home) revisits many raucous showbiz indignities—"my first day on the set of a feature film was spent in bra and panties"—and delves into the gnawing anxieties behind his heart-throb exterior: a sullen aloofness that masked his fear at auditions; spiraling alcoholism; loneliness in an L.A., where he "felt exposed and vulnerable on the deserted streets"; alienation on the coked-up set of Less Than Zero, where "the mood on the shoot turned from dark to nefarious" with a script "full of hate and self-degradation." McCarthy writes evocatively of his insecurities and dysfunctions—"I felt as if I existed behind a layer of opaque plexiglass... which would only clear when I took a drink"—but also of the high points when he felt "the simple joy at being there, at being alive and young" in front of the camera. McCarthy is clear-eyed and unsparing about Hollywood but takes the emotional intensity of the actor's craft and life seriously. The result is a riveting portrait of the artist as a young man. Photos.
Customer Reviews
Loved it
I always wondered why he didn’t do more movies. He always stole the show. Everyone wanted a guy like Blaine. Bravo to you. Great read. X
Brat
Devoured it. Andrew writes exceptionally well and you feel like you are experiencing everything with him. Thank you Mr McCarthy for not ever disappointing. Please keep writing and directing and most of all, keep being you.