Exile in Guyville: How a Punk Rock Redneck Faggot Texan Moved to West Hollywood and Refused to Be Shiny and Happy

by Dave White

Book Overview

Here's the diary of a man who, in midlife, found himself uprooted and dumped into West Hollywood, an unfamiliar place not exactly known for stability. What began as weekly diaries e-mailed to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1555839320
• ISBN13: 9781555839321
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Alyson Books
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Not For Those With A Delicate Gut

...because mine still hurts from laughing so hard. This is the kind of book that you keep promising yourself "Just one more page, then I'll put it down till tomorrow!" because you don't want it to end but then you keep reading anyway and the next thing you know your hemmorhoids are sore. Oh, was that too much information? Then you might not like this book. But I loved it. Now excuse me while I go hunting for the Preparation H.

Made me wanna move back to LA so I could make fun of it all over again!

Thank you Dave White!!!!! Though I don't live in LA anymore, Dave's book fondly reminds me of those afternoons when my snarky friends and I would sit at the Starbucks on Melrose for hours and endlessly make fun of the non-stop freakshow going by. And when I say "make fun of" I really mean "love and appreciate" because without those half-insane, made-over, media-drunk, fashion-challenged, career-deluded souls presenting themselves publicly for my amusement, the LA experience would be mighty grim, indeed. If you live in LA, or have ever lived in LA, no matter what your experience, there's something in this book for you. I promise. If you haven't lived in LA, consider this book a cautionary tale...or a handbook...or an inspirational how-to guide...or evidence that the LA you see on Extra is, in fact, there...just not how you might think. Oh hell, just buy it - it's cheap!

Surprisingly funny and warm

I am pretty sick and tired of the whole "witty gay guy" thing and really appreciate Dave White's genuinely funny authentic voice. I have read his other stuff and knew it would be entertaining, but I did not expect to laugh out loud and read the whole book in one sitting.

Vicious reflection on the culture shock of moving to another planet

Chopped up into email-sized chunks of hilarity, Dave White writes scathing daily diatribes about the tires-screeching arrival to his new West Hollywood homeland from podunk Texas. His adaptation doesn't come easy, from forcing himself to deliberately ignore celebrities to enduring goodie-bag drenched press junkets of horrid Hollywood reject movies. A great profanity laden read end-to-end. West Hollywoodians would take much needed offense upon reading it.

LA done right

The list of writers who've accurately described the LA experience is as short as my attention span. Raymond Chandler and Joan Didion come to mind. Finally, someone has done it with a nasty growl of humor and a playful sense of language that makes you wish you wrote it. This book isn't about being gay or anything like that. It's about the insanely funny details of acclimating to an insanely funny town. It's got nice bite-sized chapters and it's the cleverest book I've read in a long long time.