Brown's Guide to the Good Life

without tears, fears, or boredom

David Brown, besides being 89, is a successful Hollywood producer and married for 39 years to Helen Gurley Brown, who is far more famous than he, having written Sex and the Single Girl, and was editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine for years. I expected, therefore, a warped POV from a man so nearly connected to Hollywood and to the sexual revolution of the 1960s, and was surprised to discover how often I found his perspective perceptive and valuable. For example, the sexual revolution never made it inside his front door, at his wife's insistence.

Fine, but what about the book? Mr. Brown is a top-notch raconteur, with a delightful writing style, and his book is short, comprised of 27 tiny chapters filled with excellent advice on such topics as money management, gentlemanly manners, success and failure, and avoiding the crazy people. You may find that some of it is a bit frank, as in "Chapter 10: Sex, Love, and Marriage--the Potency Myth," his language is uncensored but only occasionally, and of course you will not agree with all of his opinions. But I found it worthwhile, and since the chapters are stand-alone, you could go straight from "Chapter 9: Hollywood, Under the Tinsel" to "Chapter 11: Stress-Makers" without missing a beat.

So yes, I can recommend this, with the above mentioned caveats on frankness and language. Let me know if you learn something from the genial Mr. Brown.