Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant cover art

Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant

Modern Life as Interpreted By Someone Who Is Reasonably Bad at Living It

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Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant

By: Joel Golby
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Summary

‘This is a funny and beautiful book. What a little bastard.’ RUSSELL BRAND

‘A millennial's answer to David Sedaris. No writer is funnier than Joel Golby.’ DOLLY ALDERTON

A collection of full-throated appreciations, withering assessments, and hard-won lessons by the popular journalist.

There are a few things you need to know about Joel Golby. Both his parents are dead. His dad was an alcoholic. He himself has a complicated relationship with alcohol. He once went to karaoke three times in five days. He will always beat you at Monopoly, and he will always cheat.

Joel makes a name for himself as a journalist who brings us distinguished articles such as ‘A Man Shits On A Plane So Hard It Has To Turn Around And Come Back Again’, but that says more about us than him. In his first book, Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant Joel writes about important stuff (death, alcohol, loss, friendship) and unimportant stuff (Saudi Arabian Camel Pageants, a watertight ranking of the Rocky films, Monopoly), always with the soft punch of a lesson tucked within.

Golby’s sharp, evocative prose thrives on reality and honesty that is gut-wrenchingly close to the bone, and laced with a copious dose of dark humour. Who is this book for? It is for everyone, but mainly people who are as lost and confused as Joel and just want to have a good laugh about it.

Art & Literature Grief & Loss Journalists, Editors & Publishers Personal Development Relationships Funny Witty Comedy
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Critic reviews

‘Joel Golby is my favourite pop-culture obsessed nihilist. If you like camel beauty pageants and robot sex as much as I do you’ll love this. You’ll laugh, cry and probably be a bit weirded out.’ SHARON HORGAN

‘Seeing the byline “Joel Golby” means you’re about to ungraciously snort with laughter in a public place. Sharper at dissecting the madness of 21st century online existence than any other writer.’ CAITLIN MORAN

‘Joel Golby is brilliant, his writing is brilliant, and his book is brilliant brilliant brilliant.’ JOE LYCETT

‘Joel is one of my favourite writers. He is brilliant and so is this massive book. If push came to shove, I would almost certainly pay the full RRP for it.’ GREG JAMES

All stars
Most relevant
As a 63 year old woman with children if a similar age to Joel I really enjoyed listening to his to histhoughts a growing up and in particular the effect of an alcoholic parent.

Enjoyable insight

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This man is a genius but he also pronounced jalapeño in a very troubling way

Tory the Corey baby

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Does it count as a review if I say I have never related harder to a chapter purely about the fantasy of murdering landlords?

I’m a long time admirer of Joel’s writing. He has a fresh, skewed vantage point on millennial life that never fails to entertain. Getting to hear about how he grew into the author he is was a fun experience, made even better hearing it read aloud by Joel himself. Also learned a lot about camels. ✌🏻

Witty, touching, relatable

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I'm a fan of Joel's work with the Guardian and have been reading his articles for a couple years now. I came across his novel on there after taking greater interest in his work after him name dropping an all-you-can eat buffet I frequented when it was still open. In the book he describes this as being on an industrial estate which though sort of accurate, most here would consider it an extension of the village, as the high street is only a couple minutes walk away. But we will forgive him.

This set of stories are genuinely laugh out loud funny at times and on the edge of heartbreaking at times. This isn't the kind of book I would normally read or listen too so at times it is a bit of a chore. Part of that is cultural as it is difficult to be empathetic with him at times. Other times his observations hit right on the nail. Not entirely sure what the camel museum stuff was about and I was sorely tempted to skip the Wayne Rooney chapter. I am glad I didn't as it was pretty insightful.

Poignant and poetic, a good first attempt at narration and novel. Will definitely listen to more in future, should he create more.

Poetic and Poignant Observations of one's life

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I really love Joe Golby’s vice articles, so was really looking forward to this book.
Some of the essays are really interesting and the way he writes about his parents life and his experience of their death is profound.
That said, I just found some of the other essays a bit rambling and uninteresting, mainly the entire chapter about Wayne Rooney and another full chapter about the Rocky movies, just dull. There were also a lot of football references in there (but again, that’s a matter of personal taste/ interests) Overall I enjoyed it and it is worth a read or a listen (some bits more than others). He’s very funny too.

Mixed feelings ...

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