Title: Brat: An '80s StoryAuthor: Andrew McCarthy
Published by: Grand Central Publishing on May 11, 2021
Genres: Nonfiction
Pages: 240
Format: Hardcover
Source: Grand Central Publishing
Book Rating: 8/10
Fans of Patti Smith’s Just Kids and Rob Lowe’s StoriesI Only Tell My Friends will love this beautifully written, entertaining, and emotionally honest memoir by an actor, director, and author who found his start as an 80s Brat pack member.
Most people know Andrew McCarthy from his movie roles in Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo’s Fire, Weekend at Bernie’s, and Less than Zero, and as a charter member of Hollywood’s Brat Pack. That iconic group of ingenues and heartthrobs included Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, and Demi Moore, and has come to represent both a genre of film and an era of pop culture.
In his memoir Brat: An ’80s Story, McCarthy focuses his gaze on that singular moment in time. The result is a revealing look at coming of age in a maelstrom, reckoning with conflicted ambition, innocence, addiction, and masculinity. New York City of the 1980s is brought to vivid life in these pages, from scoring loose joints in Washington Square Park to skipping school in favor of the dark revival houses of the Village where he fell in love with the movies that would change his life.
Filled with personal revelations of innocence lost to heady days in Hollywood with John Hughes and an iconic cast of characters, Brat is a surprising and intimate story of an outsider caught up in a most unwitting success.
Review:
Informative, interesting, and entertaining!
Brat: An ’80s Story is the honest, fascinating autobiography of Andrew McCarthy’s personal and professional successes, struggles, motivations, and accomplishments as a young actor in the early 1980s.
The writing is perceptive and genuine. And the novel is an introspective, compelling tale of one man’s life from a NY college student to the lights and fame of Hollywood in a time when high school movies aimed at teens would ultimately change pop culture forever.
Overall, Brat: An ’80s Story is a candid, intriguing, enjoyable tale by McCarthy that gives an insightful look into a talented life filled with hard work, determination, luck, and exceptional moments, but also one unfortunately often riddled with insecurity and addiction.
This book is available now.
Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Andrew McCarthy
Andrew McCarthy is a director, an award winning travel writer, and—of course—an actor. He made his professional début at 19 in Class, and has appeared in dozens of films, including such iconic movies as Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo’s Fire, Less Then Zero, and cult favorites Weekend At Bernie’s and Mannequin. He chronicles these films and his time as a member of the Brat Pack in his upcoming memoir BRAT: An ‘80s Story (order here), to be published by Grand Central in May of 2021.
Andrew has directed nearly a hundred hours of television, including some of today’s biggest hits, including The Blacklist, Grace and Frankie, New Amsterdam, Orange is the New Black, and many others.
For a dozen years Andrew served as an editor-at-large with National Geographic Traveler magazine. He has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Time, Travel+Leisure, Town & Country, Men’s Journal, Bon Appetit, and many others. He has been named Travel Journalist of the Year by The Society of American Travel Writers, as well as serving as guest editor of the prestigious BEST AMERICAN TRAVEL WRITING anthology.
Andrew is the author of a travel memoir, THE LONGEST WAY HOME and a Young Adult novel JUST FLY AWAY — both New York Times bestsellers.
He lives in New York.
Photo courtesy of Author's Website.