Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Summary:
For Alex James, music had always been a door to a more exciting life—a way to travel, meet new people, and, hopefully, pick up girls. But as bass player of Blur—one of the most successful British bands of all time—his journey was more exciting and extreme than he could ever have predicted. Success catapulted him from a slug-infested squat in Camberwell to a world of private jets and world-class restaurants. As "the second drunkest member of the world’s drunkest band" Alex James's life was always chaotic, but he retained a boundless enthusiasm and curiosity at odds with his hedonistic lifestyle. From nights in the Groucho with Damien Hirst, to dancing to Sister Sledge with Björk, to being bitten on the nose by the lead singer of Iron Maiden, he offers a fascinating and hilarious insight into the world of celebrity. At its heart, however, this is the picaresque tale of one man’s search to find meaning and happiness in an increasingly surreal world. Pleasingly unrepentant but nonetheless a reformed man, Alex James is the perfect chronicler of his generation—witty, frank and brimming with joie de vivre. A Bit of a Blur is as charming, funny, and deliciously disreputable as its author.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Swine Not Read This Book?
Customer Rating:
The first fiction book that I have read in years did not disappoint. I enjoyed it so much that I ended up reading Buffett's A Salty Piece of Land afterwards.
Entertaining and fun read, but not Buffett's best effort.
Customer Rating:
I love Jimmy's books, he is a great story teller. I think this book would be fun for kids to read, and I found it entertaining, but not his best effort.
Pure Hogwash!
Customer Rating:
I've always enjoyed Buffett's music and found his previous books interesting enough. "Swine Not", however, didn't even come close to entertaining. To be honest, I've read thousands of books, some great, some not so good. But this is probably one of less than five that I've not even bothered to waste my time finishing. Boring, unfunny, and unimaginative...at least the first 60 pages!
more like a childs novel
Customer Rating:
I loved it, but found it more like a childs novel than for adults. It was a very fast read.
Less is more
Customer Rating:
Less is more.
The concept of a pig and his 12-year old buddy narrating a story is darling -- yes, I said darling (see 'precious') -- but even Jimmie Buffett can't stretch it into a novel. As it goes on and on and on, the story drags and the villain, Monsieur Boucher, becomes plain annoying.
Jimmie Buffett admits up front that a friend brought him a delightful 25-page story about a pig living in a 4-star hotel. He should have left it alone. At 25 pages, it was undoubtedly a charming story. At 200+ pages, it gets to be a real bore -- probably even for the 5th graders who would make up its ideal audience.
No, even I, a card-carrying Jimmie Buffett fan, liked it. Further, if it took two years to write, his editor must be meaner than mine (and simply threw his hands up and said, in the end, "Do what you will.)