Adam Resnick’s extemporaneous bile and deep, existential paranoia throttle any hint of superficial, saccharine wonder out of the childhood stories that constitute the seething, autobiographical essays of Will Not Attend: Lively Stories of Detachment and Isolation. Hilarious despite itself, this comic memoir betrays the mania that boils just beneath the surface of Resnick’s furrowed brow. Every drop of the author’s eccentric misanthropy is spilled onto the page as we contemplate the mindset of a child that would try to summon the devil in order to avoid homework, break into an old woman’s home to steal an out-of-print 78 rpm record, and grow up to throw away his daughter’s piano out of spite. Will Not Attend is an antisocial manifesto that embraces the unadulterated glee of doing what you want to do when you want to do it and telling everyone who gets in your way where they can stick it.
Adam Resnick is best known as the writer and director of cinematic-flops-turned-cult-classics Cabin Boy and Death to Smoochy, as well as a staff writer for Late Night with David Letterman, The Larry Sanders Show, Saturday Night Live, and co-creator of the doomed sitcom Get a Life. He can currently be found somewhere scowling at a laughing child.
Join the Stand Up Sit Down Book Club on Monday September 28th at 7 p.m. in the cafe at BookPeople to discuss Will Not Attend by Adam Resnick, share your favorite memories of destructive mayhem, and have a laugh over the misfortune of others. The Stand Up Sit Down Book Club meets on the last Monday of every month to talk about comedy, memoirs, and the memoirs of comedians. Come over to BookPeople this month to chat about all things Adam Resnick. You’ll be glad you attended.
– Steve(n) W.
BookPeople 