"In the generous and sincere tone of a speechmaker at a retirement party... what could have been the saddening diary of a dissolute scoundrel finds its charm... like any good memoirist, Wood is shamelessly honest and devoted to his own irresponsibility: lying, thieving and other disreputable behavior."
-- The New York Times


    Poor Ronnie.

    Some of his more venomous hangers-on have at times tried to make people believe that he actually wrote this book. Which is one reason why the ghostwriter's name does not appear on the cover or in the publicity. 

   Where the book reads smoothly and coherently, generously, sincerely, shamelessly honest and like a good memoirist, that's down to the ghostwriter. 

   Where the book reads incoherent, silly, witless, muddled, juvenile, confused, chaotic and disjointed, that's down to the fools and irresponsible snakes in the entourage. 

    You don't have to spend more than two years finding the best stories and then writing this book to know that Ronnie -- an otherwise very likeable guy -- and the greedy people who take advantage of him by trying to control his life, would all struggle to write a shopping list.