Friends Like These

August 31, 2009
In his latest, British humorist and TV personality Wallace (Yes Man) takes readers along on his quarter-life crisis quest to reconnect with childhood friends. Just months from his 30th birthday, Wallace found that "the evidence of impending adulthood" was all around him: he and his wife were eating healthy food, patronizing trendy bars rather than the neighborhood pub, and renovating their London home. When his parents send him a box of childhood mementos, Wallace gets the idea to locate as many childhood friends as he can before his next birthday. Traveling across the United Kingdom, out to Japan and elsewhere (even entertaining a trip to Fiji for one former school buddy), Wallace rediscovers shared memories, creates new tales and fulfills old dreams (including seeing a live Michael Jackson concert). By juxtaposing verbal snapshots of his childhood with his adult life and those of his friends, Wallace presents an entertaining (if somewhat shallow) look at the lives of a reluctantly maturing generation; fans of Gen-X and Gen-Y culture writers like Chuck Klosterman should find their overseas counterparts eminently relatable.

July 15, 2009
A British writer and broadcaster turns the familiar angst of approaching age 30 into a diverting adventure.

Wallace, whose previous book (Yes Man, 2005, etc.) inspired the recent Jim Carrey movie, recounts his summer-long attempt to find a dozen old school friends to see how they were faring as they were leaving their 20s. Prompted by the lawnmowers, lattes and other"evidence of impending adulthood" encountered after his move from the East End to upscale North London, the author used an old address book and the Internet to track down and visit long-lost buddies in Los Angeles, Melbourne, Berlin, Tokyo and London. Though the narrative is sometimes overblown and meandering, Wallace has an upbeat style and an eye for bright anecdotes as he writes about others in his Generation X group who grew up in Scotland and the Midlands, enamored of video games, Michael Jackson and Back to the Future. There is Anil Tailor, now an architect, with whom the author once sat reading comics under"the magic tree"; Cameron Dewa, a London IT specialist and third in line to the throne of Fiji; and Akira Matsui, a Japanese medical doctor who jokes about the day a mutual childhood friend did the crane kick from The Karate Kid on his head. Along with a Berlin rapper, a British restaurant manager who has mastered time travel and others, his friends are finding their way, beginning marriages and careers, and react with delight at Wallace's often-surprise visit. When not describing aspects of his search, the author recalls hilarious bygone moments, from playing phone pranks to delivering newspapers to a Mr. Shitler."I'm a child!" he tells his patient wife, Lizzie, who agrees to his sojourn in return for his doing household chores. But all is not lighthearted—one old friend, he learns, died at 18. Reflecting on his rite-of-passage travels, Wallace concludes,"Yeah, we all grow up. We all get busy. But we all need friends."

Great fun, especially for anyone facing the Big 3-0.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

September 15, 2009
Approaching 30, Wallace ("Yes Man"; "Join Me") wondered how he had become a man with throw pillows on his sofa and a social calendar that includes brunch. An old address book inspired him to go on a quest to find his 12 best friends from childhood to see how each is coping with turning 30 and to acknowledge the ways those friends influenced him. The resulting memoir, though a bit slow in the beginning, is a touching and often humorous look at how social networking and a willingness to travel can help long-lost friends reconnect. Wallace and the friends with whom he'd lost touch share memories of Michael Jackson, the "Back to the Future" trilogy, "Ghostbusters", and the occasional practical joke. His narrative is a reminder of the importance of childhood memories. VERDICT Reminiscent of Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity", this memoir should appeal to male readers of a certain age and to anyone who has gotten hooked on networking web sites. [Film rights have been sold to Miramax.Ed.]Pam Kingsbury, Univ. of North Alabama, Florence

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2009
Like A. J. Jacobs, Wallace is carving out a niche for himself as an author of quirky memoirs. In Join Me (2004), his first book, Wallace recounted his rather accidental formation of a collective dedicated to performing random acts of kindness; in Yes Man (2005), he chronicled his year of saying yes to every offer or invitation or challenge that came his way. In his new book, he describes how impending adulthoodhe was about to turn 30made him wonder what had happened to the friends he hung out with years ago. He did what any impulsive fella would do: he hauled out an old address book and started making calls. As he reconnects with his old pals, he reconnects with his old self, too: the kid from the 1980s who saw the world so differently, yet somehow so much the same as his older, wiser self. Wallace, who begins the book childishly resisting adulthood, ends by not exactly embracing it, but not cowering in the face of it. A well-told, often laugh-out-loud-funny story that will ring true for anyone whos stared an approaching birthday in the face and not liked what they saw.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)