Ayoade on Ayoade
Author: Richard Ayoade
Published by: Faber & Faber
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
My Rating ★★★
Published by: Faber & Faber
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
My Rating ★★★
“Once in every generation, a man writes a book. This is that book. I am a man.”
Over ten insightful and often erotic interviews, the author examines himself fully and without mercy, leading a breathless investigation into this once-in-a-generation visionary.
Over ten insightful and often erotic interviews, the author examines himself fully and without mercy, leading a breathless investigation into this once-in-a-generation visionary.
My thoughts
Richard Ayoade is an English comedian, actor, writer, TV presenter and director, best known for his roles in Darkplace and the Emmy Award-winning The IT Crowd, director of the movies Submarine and The Double. In this book Richard Ayoade - actor, writer, and director - reflects on his cinematic legacy as only he can: in conversation with himself.
Richard Ayoade is basically a treasure. His comedic style is pretty much unrivalled on television today. So how well does his unique branch of humour translate to the page? The truth is, I’m still not entirely sure it did.
Ayoade on Ayoade is ultimately a series of interviews given by Richard Ayoade to Richard Ayoade, hence the title. His quick-witted and subtle humour flows well throughout the interviews, and the book is designed to be held together by a series of footnotes. In fact, nearly half of the book is purely just footnotes. The footnotes are made up of letters and diary entries and strange short film scripts.
The book is, in parts, laugh out loud funny, however it is also quite disjointed, especially with those lengthy footnotes which, whilst still good, felt a little boring and repetitive after a while.
The book has received mix reviews from readers, and I can understand why it’s not got universal appeal. I wanted so much to like it. I tried so hard to like it. The humour is so specific and reflects Ayoade’s voice quite well in the interviews, but the appendices were honestly just too much. After a while it became a bit irritating, particularly in the second half of the book. Fortunately, however, there were enough truly funny moments to allow me to give this a three-star rating, and to mostly enjoy it overall. I think this was quite enjoyable but more as a comedy book to dip into every now and again.
To read it as I did in a short amount of time resulted in mild disappointment as it’s quite samey throughout. On the other hand, I have to confess to laughing a fair bit while reading.
I still have mixed feelings on this one. I was told that in order to get the most from this book, you must love British humour, appreciate Ayoade’s quirky humour, and ideally have a good knowledge of philosophical filmmakers. Even though I feel I can tick these boxes pretty confidently, I wasn’t as impressed as I’d hoped. I just felt that Ayoade really wasn’t as funny or interesting in printed form. Disappointed overall, but I’m still glad I checked this one out of my local library and gave it a go. All in all, I found this book mostly pointless but in a charming way.
Overall reaction:
Richard Ayoade is an English comedian, actor, writer, TV presenter and director, best known for his roles in Darkplace and the Emmy Award-winning The IT Crowd, director of the movies Submarine and The Double. In this book Richard Ayoade - actor, writer, and director - reflects on his cinematic legacy as only he can: in conversation with himself.
Richard Ayoade is basically a treasure. His comedic style is pretty much unrivalled on television today. So how well does his unique branch of humour translate to the page? The truth is, I’m still not entirely sure it did.
Ayoade on Ayoade is ultimately a series of interviews given by Richard Ayoade to Richard Ayoade, hence the title. His quick-witted and subtle humour flows well throughout the interviews, and the book is designed to be held together by a series of footnotes. In fact, nearly half of the book is purely just footnotes. The footnotes are made up of letters and diary entries and strange short film scripts.
The book is, in parts, laugh out loud funny, however it is also quite disjointed, especially with those lengthy footnotes which, whilst still good, felt a little boring and repetitive after a while.
The book has received mix reviews from readers, and I can understand why it’s not got universal appeal. I wanted so much to like it. I tried so hard to like it. The humour is so specific and reflects Ayoade’s voice quite well in the interviews, but the appendices were honestly just too much. After a while it became a bit irritating, particularly in the second half of the book. Fortunately, however, there were enough truly funny moments to allow me to give this a three-star rating, and to mostly enjoy it overall. I think this was quite enjoyable but more as a comedy book to dip into every now and again.
To read it as I did in a short amount of time resulted in mild disappointment as it’s quite samey throughout. On the other hand, I have to confess to laughing a fair bit while reading.
I still have mixed feelings on this one. I was told that in order to get the most from this book, you must love British humour, appreciate Ayoade’s quirky humour, and ideally have a good knowledge of philosophical filmmakers. Even though I feel I can tick these boxes pretty confidently, I wasn’t as impressed as I’d hoped. I just felt that Ayoade really wasn’t as funny or interesting in printed form. Disappointed overall, but I’m still glad I checked this one out of my local library and gave it a go. All in all, I found this book mostly pointless but in a charming way.
Overall reaction:
