Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain

The revelations in this biography are fascinating. I hope Amazon soon corrects the errors in the appearance of the text. Instead of apostrophes and quotation marks, the Kindle app on my Samsung tablet displays the following characters: Tony’s and José André, which make for frustrating reading.

I met Anthony Bourdain way back in 1998 after the publication of his wonderfully funny and poignant book Kitchen Confidential. He was at a book signing in my town and I was determined to meet him. I remember him being tall, shy, and sweet when I spoke with him. I was a huge fan and devastated of course when he took his life. This book seems to be the most well-researched of those written so far.

Why are there so many non-related “letters” within the text such as &@€ off putting and for £9.00 frankly annoying. I may not bother to read. Had to submit one star, which is one too many.

If I could give this 0 stars I would. Largely made up of stuff that has already been written or can be found online. I regret buying this. Total waste of money and little more than tabloid fodder by an attention seeking "journalist" who wants to make a quick buck or two from Bourdain's death. Don't waste your money lining this 'writers' pockets

First 2/3 of the book are not very interesting. Generally a bit grubby. Not sure I needed to know the details of his private text messages.

Heard about this book from NYTimes, where commentators had already expressed the opinion that perhaps Tony should be left in peace, and the premise of this book to "blame the woman" is salacious greed on the author's part. Still, I approached with an open mind, since some source material came from ex-wife as a seeming family endorsement. Second paragraph:"It all came down to the woman, or so the supposedly wise ones said. Darkly beautiful, you had to admit, and certainly no dummy, but trouble with a capital T, an old-fashioned femme fatale. Cocktail for cocktail, she could keep up with him all night long and then pull away like Man o' war in the rosy-fingered homestretch. He loved that about her, that she was tough and independent and always thirsty; he loved that fresh mouth."Not only is this "rosy-fingered" 1990s teenage novel writing, the content perpetuates harmful tropes and does not appear sufficiently self-aware to able to explore suicide in the nuanced and insightful manner deserved of those struggling or suffering, and survivors. I don't know if this book is meant to be is a celebration of Bourdain, glamour, toxicity, or to point blame, or what.Tabloid fodder is an apt description.

This book does not really tell anything that wasn’t already known, except for a couple of texts and e-mails. No really new information most of it recycled. I would not bother buying it, had I known. Tom Vitale”s book is a much more interesting inside into Tonys persona, as Tom worked for 16 years with Bourdain. Toms book is a painful read, but really the best book out there right now.