I love autobiographies. They're candid and usually funny and touching. I love being let into someone's life, it feels intimate and old fashioned, like listening to a war story at an old person's knee. We know that the stories are edited and slightly glamed up for an audience, but nonetheless hold grains of truth and the honesty of sharing. And more often than not, I can see bits of myself in the experiences and quirks of the authors. I'll admit to liking print validation.
I've got two for this post that I picked up last month on a spree in the biographies section.
First up - Yes Man by Danny Wallace. Recently made into an American movie starring Jim Carey (which I've been told is funny, but no, I haven't seen). Danny Wallace is, well a bit infamous for what he terms 'boy projects'. He's written several books on his previous exploits...which unfortunately led to his girlfriend being a bit fed up and leaving him bummed out and alone. Sad singledom has the nasty effect of turning Danny into a recluse who says no an awful lot, particularly to friendly invitations by his mates. Danny feels self sufficient and happy to hang out with his new best friend, the telly...but in reality he's in a funk.
On the way home one day, his train gets canceled and he has to take the bus. He sits next to a man who ends up giving him the fortuitous advice that he should say yes more. That simple. Danny is inspired and makes this his new boy project. As boy projects need rules and parameters, instead of just taking the friendly advice as meaning say yes more often, Danny decides to interpret it as say yes to everything. The only exceptions are that he does not have to say yes to the requests of someone who knows about the project (because obviously his mates in the know could have a jolly good time with that).
At first, Danny finds 'yes' to be a cruel mistress. He says yes to adverts telling him to "say it with flowers", he says yes to accompanying his ex on a date with a new beau when he runs in to them on their way to the restaurant, he even says yes to a man who asks if he's looking to get punched out. He can't say no to another pint or an invite out, no matter how much he'd rather be home in front of the telly. He even gets wrapped up in an internet scam by saying yes to helping a middle eastern prince asking for help to escape his country. All things that most people would say 'no' to in their head without even pausing for thought.
It does get better for Danny though. 'Yes' opens up a wealth of opportunities for him and he starts to see that one yes can start a chain of yeses that can literally change your life. By saying yes to an add in the paper asking him to come to a meeting with a society interested in the paranormal, to saying yes to attend a party with a colleague he doesn't particularly like, Danny ends up being offered a job as a host of a show looking into alternative spirituality, his first TV gig. Also through a chain of yeses, that involves a girl he is in love with who lives in Australia unknowingly suggesting he should buy her a ticket to come to the Edinburgh festival, Danny ends up taking a chance on a love that lasts. And when he asks her to stay with him forever (after explaining the crazy boy project of course) she takes a chance on yes too.
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