#12: Eric Idle, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

[kareila]

Eric Idle always struck me as the odd Python out. Chapman & Cleese were a pair, Jones & Palin were a pair, and Gilliam was off doing his own thing in the corner. Reading this book, you'd think Idle was the lynchpin holding the troupe together, and maybe he was.

The book can be divided roughly into thirds. First, his childhood and early career, which comes off as charming and humble. Second, a catalog of ridiculous celebrity antics following Monty Python's massive success, which I'm sure is all mostly true but still comes off as pretentious. To be fair, I don't think it's possible to write about becoming bestest friends with one of the Beatles without sounding at least somewhat pretentious, and if it hadn't been for George Harrison mortgaging his house to finance a film company, Life of Brian would never have been made, so we should be thankful. The final third of the book concerns the later stages of Idle's life and career after moving from England to California in 1994. Overall, I enjoyed the bits concerning Idle's personal life and work but found that his relentless catalog of celebrity friends grew increasingly tiresome.

Comments

[kareila]

Belatedly, I realize that Idle doesn't talk at all about the fiction he authored, most notably "The Road to Mars" in 1999, which has languished on my to-read pile for 20 years.