Most Talkative: Stories From The Front Lines Of Pop Culture (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
I not only read this book in a matter of hours (even stopping in the middle for an accidental afternoon nap) but I read it with Andy Cohen's voice in my head. it was a delightful, deliciously sassy and light read, with all of the salacious details of the Real Housewives franchises as a (not so) closet fan could hope for. I identified with Andy and his loud, adorably blunt Jewish mother, so much so that the ALL CAPS he used whenever she was quoted in the book didn't bother me nearly as much as it tends to in other books. Neither did the over-use of exclamation points, because, if you think about it, Andy Cohen is basically one plucky human exclamation point. But he has real, legitimate roots as a news producer, something I was unaware of before reading his memoir. There were laugh out loud moments (describing a made up sexual encounter with a hirsute -and female- German student as a last ditch effort to keep up his Straight Charade as "false, gross, false, gross, and no.") and some genuinely vulnerable moments (reporting from Oklahoma city after the bombings). Overall it was breezy and as personable a book as Cohen is in real life. As an avid reader of memoirs and biographies, Amazon has been pushing this book to me since before it was published. I had no idea who Andy Cohen was, so I just kept ignoring it. But I found a copy of this book at a used book store for a fair price and decided to give it a try. The woman at the cash register seemed disappointed that she hadn't found the book herself ("I didn't know he had a book! Oh man! I should have bought this!") but sold it to me anyway. I figured that Cohen must be someone famous in some regard -- I expected him to be a reporter on Access Hollywood or something, based on the byline of the book.It turns out that people know him as the guy from the Real Housewives shows, in case you're still wondering. He produces the shows and hosts the interviews as well as another Bravo interview/chat show. None of these things are really of interest to me, but his book was still interesting. His stories of his career trajectory in television were pretty interesting and it was fun to geek out along with Cohen -- he got to meet Susan Lucci! I enjoyed reading about his various jaunts with different news anchors and the desperate attempts to make something out of nothing (how to make a morning show as popular as NBC's Today Show? NOT EASY). Although some of his personal stories sounded like fun, there were definitely a lot of "you had to be there" types of moments and he doesn't make his best gal pal sound very good in any of them. She's constantly the ringleader for mean pranks on his parents - and not just 'gotcha' pranks, but months-long campaigns to convince his parents of something silly, like Cohen believing that he's Native American - but for what? Because SHE thought it was funny! It came off mean-spirited (and a little emotionally imbalanced, to be honest) and certainly long-winded and wasn't any fun to read. And although Cohen does a deft job at downplaying his financial situation, it's hard to ignore. He goes from an expensive university to a very expensive NYC job and flying across the country on a whim (to dance at the B-52s concert) and traveling Europe... it's obviously not a career/social path that anyone else could follow.To be honest, toward the end of the book my eyes were glazing over. I don't follow the Real Housewives and the last few chapters are dedicated to that subject alone, so it wasn't relevant. He'd reference a quirk in someone, as if you'd know what he's talking about. And I suppose he's right - you wouldn't know Cohen without the Housewives, so if you're reading this you're probably a fan. But since I don't know anything about it, those stories weren't of interest to me.
What do You think about Most Talkative: Stories From The Front Lines Of Pop Culture (2012)?
Positively awesome! definitely worth listening to andy perform the audiobook.
—rituparnabhattacharya
Love all the revelations. Great read for Housewives fans and more.
—BosFabio
I liked this one less than his newer one.
—brittanyyalbiee
