Can't You Get Along With Anyone?: A Writer's Memoir and a Tale of a Lost Surfer's Paradise

by Allan C. Weisbecker

At the finale of his critically acclaimed first memoir, In Search of Captain Zero, Allan Weisbecker has found his paradise at the end of the road in outback Central America (Pavones, Costa Rica), and is working of the screen adaptation of the book, commissioned by Sean Penn and a major Hollywood studio. Can t You Get Along With Anyone? is the story of Weisbecker s paradise, its underbelly, his fall from grace with the powers that be in Hollywood and the publishing business, plus the near loss of his life due to the writing of the book; he exposes a double murderer and, more dangerously, the love of his life as a sociopath. Interwoven through the various catastrophes that test him on every level, are Weisbecker s reflections on the process of writing the book itself and the nature of nonfiction. Weathering his after-writing throes, writer s queasy gut, and hemorrhaging forehead (from staring at the blank page), Weisbecker maintains his sanity and perspective through his wry, sometimes wildly funny take on his own fears and flaws, and through retreat into the purity of the simple act of riding a wave.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

504 pages, Hardcover

Published September 24, 2007

About the author

Allan C. Weisbecker (1947/1948 – October 2023) was an American novelist, screenwriter, memoirist, and surfer.
s.

Reviews

[Marye odom]

The sequel to In Search of Captain Zero. I waited years for this book, I emailed the author, I begged. He came through and he hasn't disappointed. It's big, it's heavy, it rocks.

[Elijah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really like the book, but it's so damn depressing! Loves a woman who is a perpetual cheat, lives a lifestyle where he loads up on drugs in order to kill pain and forgot about people trying to kill him, sleeps with a gun, battles with Hollywood movie star produces and ex-skate heroes.

I think I might have found a pulisher!

Interesting character that Alan.

[Ian Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

An unhinged rant.

[E. C. Koch · Rating 1 out of 5]

Early in this book, while discussing the editing of his previous memoir, In Search of Captain Zero, Weisbecker recalls an unpleasant interaction with his new editor during which she proclaimed to know how long his book (i.e., Captain Zero) should be without even having read it. Weisbecker makes a big deal out of this, saying the obvious stuff about how anyone should at least read the thing before making such a proclamation, and then takes matters a bit further by citing passages from the editor’s book to show just how bad a writer she is. Anyone who does this – lambastes an editor’s instincts and then tries to show how much better his own writing is by comparison – has to be totally buttoned up in every conceivable way in order to not come across looking like an ass. This is precisely how Weisbecker comes to look. After finally staggering across the finish line of his second memoir, I can say that Weisbecker, ironically but predictably, was in desperate need of an editor because Can’t You Get Along with Anyone is a mess. Throughout the whole thing, Weisbecker regularly interrupts himself to expand on the importance of building narrative tension and maintaining the reader’s momentum and massaging facts in order to make the whole a more pleasurable read, but then loses narrative tension by rambling and exhausts the reader’s momentum by failing to pursue any interesting narrative line and getting bogged down in attempting to substantiate every claim he makes with evidence. And what’s most frustrating is that there were probably four interesting, worthwhile books he could have written with the material he tried to cram into this one. What do I mean? First there’s the stuff about him mom dying, then there’s the stuff about trying to get Cosmic Banditos turned into a movie, then there’s the stuff about trying to (simultaneously) get Captain Zero made into a movie, and then there’s the stuff about his meeting the woman he believes to be the love of his life only to learn that she’s cheating on him. This last part overshadows the entire book, but since Weisbecker is so obsessive about proving his innocence and her guilt to us, the readers, he comes across as feckless and petulant, never getting anywhere close to pathos, making the work a reading this thing a slog. So the stuff I don’t care about is all he can be bothered to deliver, and the stuff that I do care about doesn’t interest him. At the end of the whole everything there wasn't any structured through-line holding this thing together which makes it seem as through Weisbecker wasn’t in control of what he was writing, that, instead, the events he was writing about were in control. The kind of structure I’m talking about demands a certain curation of events – which may even require not telling us everything that happened exactly how it happened – in order to expose and illuminate the organizing themes that make any book feel substantial. And another word for this kind of curation is editing.

[Djaaronb Bierman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Allan captures so much of the surfing/adventure/life experience that he should be commended. The wild tales in his book are beautifully set up and the payoffs bring insight and wonder.

It is such a simultaneously painful and enjoyable experience to read this guy, cringing and laughing all at once. You feel so much for his life experiences and you root for him every step of the way.

A great book- here's hoping he continues to pump them out!

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

currently reading this, sort of a sequel to in search of captain zero...

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

i'm cuckoo for allan! ;)

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

there, but for the grace of god, go i

[Julius · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love this author, sadly there is so much self loathing and paranoia that I can only read so much! I am putting it away to finish at a later date...

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

just ok. Worth the read to read about the Max Dalton case.