I have mixed reviews with regards to this book, on the one hand I found it took me a little time to get used to the style of writing, whilst on the other there were some really funny moments that made it quite an enjoyable read. All in all I would say it was just above an average book and I have read a lot worse but then again I’ve also read better.

Nostalgia Is What It Used To Be


The old joke is that if everyone who says they were at Woodstock in 1969 had really been at Woodstock, there would have been 15 million people on Max Yasgur's farm that August weekend. I thought of that as I read this book and remembered all the things I did that I didn't really do and all of the experiences I had that I never actually had. But that's O.K., because Simon Wan did do everything important, remembers it, and tells us about it with charm, honesty and a certain ribald carelessness that brings it all back again.

Wan's story is a combination of madness, passion, recklessness, error, redemption, selfishness and hope. In short, all of the different lenses through which we look at our own pasts, our own loves and losses, and our own successes and failures. Simon takes you by the hand and by showing you the dignity and the foolishness of his own choices, maybe gives you a little insight into your own. Along the way he gives you a bit of a tour of the past three or so decades from his unique point of view.

And he does all of that with great and generous good-humor, which for me is enough right there. An entertaining and surprisingly engaging and well-sustained bit of late-night rueful and humorous confessional, with possibly a bit of exaggeration of the sin parts. (Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)