Year of the Cock: The Remarkable True Account of a Married Man Who Left His Wife and Paid the Price

by Alan Wieder

Book Overview

From a powerful new voice in nonfiction comes this electrifying chronicle of a married man who leaves his wife to pursue a carefree bachelorhood - only to plunge into an abyss of shame, regret, and penis envy. Thirty-year-old Alan Wieder has everything a man could possibly want: a nice home in L.A., a thriving Hollywood career, and to top it all off, a beautiful and adoring wife. Then one day in 2005 - the Year of the Rooster - he wakes up with questions:...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446582166
• ISBN13: 9780446582162
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The 13% was worth it: He against the world.

Egotistical male power fantasy gone wrong? Sure. "How-to" for leaving your wife and living the dream? For a while. Alan Weider's long hard look inward, at first glance- is an easy target; he leaves his loving wife and goes on a penis-driven, one-man Fear and Loathing-esque adventure into the pants of various women. Year of the Cock at times threatens to read like the first paragraph of any issue of Penthouse Letters. Don't you dare try to act as if you don't know what I am talking about. This book is a great and many thing, and if nothing else, is honest. It's quite easy to whip up a yarn about an oppressive wife dragging your creativity and independance down and killing your soul until you break yourself out of the jail of yadda yadda and live your yakkety yak, How Steve Got His Groove Back, Waiting to (In)hale (a doobie). Happily ever after I would know, I've done it. Problem is two-fold. We've seen that story a million times, and more importantly, that isn't real life. You don't always get to ride off into the sunset as the hero, and sometimes, you do still wind up paying for your crimes. Redemption be damned. Nature of the beast. Just is. He told the real story. As it (87%)happened. It wasn't just the truth, but what he owed the reader- Honesty. Mind the gap.

Smart, Fast, Fun, Two Day Read!

Loved this book...oddly. I am a stay at home mother of three young ones who falls asleep after two pages of Pulitzer Prize winning novels because I am too tired to think, and I lost sleep to find out what happened to Alan Wieder in Year of the Cock. Ignore the naysayers and offense takers in these reviews, I find those who are habitually offended so freaking offensive. Life is too short! It is not MY penis he writes about...heck, I don't even have a penis, but I sure found it funny (at times sad) and certainly, massively entertaining to hitch a ride on an early midlife crisis exposed in such a hilariously shameless, and might I add, damned well written manner. Give this book a whirl, and it will give you one too. (By the way, I think the mixed reviews should only encourage that there is something here that is original and interesting enough to elicit some attention!)

I've known A Cock or Two-dle-Two!

I never expected to LOVE this book. I wanted to hate it and hate it big time. All I could think about was my girlfriends and I sitting around talking and finding out that this one's boyfriend/husband cheated on this one. And so-and-so's husband wants a divorce because he's got a younger woman with a hot body...and then all the man - bashing that goes along with it. Ever wonder WHY they do what they do? Honestly? Not the "What men want you to think" answer? Well here it is in all it's memoir glory! Alan writes this book with wit and a sharp tongue. The one-of-a-kind new and fresh voice that comes from this author stings with honesty! I couldn't stop reading and I actually took it with me for a couple of days everywhere I went. As a woman, there were parts of this that were definitely hard to read and others that were just so funny I had to laugh out loud. I applaud Mr. Wieder for his honesty and ability to admit his faults. This memoir was as real as it gets! Ladies...if you've ever known a [...] (or two - dle doo .... sorry) and I'm not taking about the Chinese Zodiac...OK? And were left with some unanswered questions, then this is the book for you. Oh, and guys...I'm sure you'll have a few of those "I can relate" moments or maybe even be a little ticked off that he broke what I call "The Man Code" by telling all...I guarantee you'll still enjoy this book! Alan Wieider does NOT disappoint in this Not to be missed, in your face memoir of the year!

Loved it, read it in two sittings!

This was a highly-interesting and honest profile of the author's experience...my favorite memoir in awhile and I read the Sedarises, etc. Several laugh-out-loud moments, I blazed through it in two days. It was really, really well-written and surprisingly literate for this type of book. Highly recommended!

Great non-fiction. As real and honest as you can get.

Title: "Year Of The Cock" Author: Alan Wieder Publisher: Grand Central Publishing The Skinny: Writer/Producer of such reality hits as "My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance" puts his pen to paper and gives us a hilarious and heart-wrenching account of the year when he left his wife and found the grass wasn't necessarily greener on the single side when he developed OCD-isms about his hands, his hair and most oddly and disturbingly, his franks and beans. Will you like it? If you like non-fiction writing about the most real and embarrassing stuff life can throw at you then yes, this book is for you. If you're a suburban housewife who thinks the word penis belongs in a medical journal, then no, this book isn't for you. Go back to "Chicken Soup For the Soul" Full Review: "The Year of the Cock" in the book's title has double meaning. One, it was in fact, the Chinese Year of the Cock when this all took place and two, it was a year when the author, Alan Wieder, would spend waaaaaaaaay more time obsessing about the size of his penis than any other man on earth. The story begins when Alan, a successful reality TV creator/producer has been working eighteen hour days for the better part of two years finds his marriage in shambles and instead of summoning the energy from his exhuasted brain to get it back on track, opts to leave his wife behind and pursue a life of bachelordome chasing skirt, drinking to excess and drop twenty-five grand on a vintage Porsche. It works! Well, kinda. At first he's living the high life in the hills, he's got his mojo going, wracking up number after number of every girl he wants and having seen the first strange nipple in ten years, life is good. He even connects with a young hottie from work who he wines and dines and spends a lot of time with... what he doesn't realize is after only a short while away from his wife, he's already in another relationship with someone well, a lot like his wife. And that's when it happens. After a viewing of the notorious and nausiating Fred Durst porn video, Alan begins a dark spiraling descent into madness with the cause of his troubles being his penis. His dink which had always been just fine, had always done the job, is now for some reason the smallest spec of a lump on his six foot four frame. He drinks, he measures, his new found freedom wanes, his career begins to slip away as he puts more and more pressure on his writing partner to pick up the slack and within months he's wasting away, a shell of a man who does nothing but sit in his apartment, drinking to excess, doing insane stretching exercisestrying to solve his problem by lenghthening his love snorkle. But the cause is something much deeper than what's on the surface and it'll take a trip to hell and back in hopes he can right his quickly sinking ship. You really have to read it to appreciate his craftsmanship. My first thought when I heard what it was about was, "Who wants to read three hundred pages about some other