Uncle Dysfunctional: Uncompromising Answers to Life's Most Painful Problems

by A.A. Gill, Gerald Scarfe (Illustrations), Alex Bilmes (Editor)

From 2011 up until his death at the end of 2016, the inimitable AA Gill reigned supreme as Uncle Dysfunctional, Esquire's resident advice columnist. In this raffish, hilarious, scathing yet often surprisingly humane collection, Gill applies his unmatched wit to the largest and smallest issues of our time.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction, Biography

160 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2017

About the author

Adrian Anthony Gill was an English journalist. He was the author of 9 books, including The Angry Island. He was the TV and restaurant critic and a regular features writer for The Sunday Times, a columnist for Esquire, and a contributor to Vanity Fair. He lived in London.

Reviews

[Parvathy]

Hysterically funny in parts, just plain coarse in others, wise in most. The writing, as usual, is impeccable.

[Athan Tolis]

So here's the deal: your mom cannot find this.

She'll be sure to make up some sort of alternative reality whereby you did not buy it yourself. Or perhaps an alternative reality in which you did buy it, but only because you had not read any of it first. Should she glimpse you reading it, she will no doubt blame your raunchy wife's bad influence. The bottom line is it will hurt her very deeply to find this in your library. It's one thing if it's a column you read in Esquire and quite another to be caught anywhere in the vicinity of this compilation of five star, uncut, unfiltered filth.

To find herself in the position to start making all these excuses for you, she'll have to read some of it first, I hear you say. True enough, but this resolutely does not make things any better.

On the other hand, perhaps this little tome has come into your possession via your other half.

That can only be good news. Let's leave it there, I don't care to hear the rest...

P.S. I've cut a star because (due to a flight delay, I promise) I read it in one go. If you do, you'll see what I mean.

[Mugren Ohaly]

You know how when you have a crush on someone and they seem perfect but then they open their mouth and their stupidity ruins everything? That’s what this is.

[Ed]

There is something creepy about writing responses to fake letters - showing how much cleverer he is than these people, but these people aren't real...

There was an occasional laugh, enough to sustain reading its short length, but too often it felt like a stand up comedian who's resorting to needlessly provocative profanity out of desperation that no-one is laughing at his jokes. The only purpose of this book is to showcase Gill's wit, but it's just not there. I am genuinely baffled by the long list of reviewers saying Gill is the best writer ever etc. Have they not read a single other author?!

[Sergio GRANDE]

I've read through many facets of A.A. Gill's remarkable career: the incisive social observer, the entertaining world-traveler, the merciless war zone correspondent, the morose and sometimes boring self-biographer, the funny foodie reviewer, et al.

And then there's the ribald, I-don't-give-a-toss personality under the open-secret nome de plume, Uncle Dysfunctional.

This is an example of the type of column he ran:

"Dear Uncle Dysfunctional,
I’ve got a bent cock. Really bent. Like a right angle. What shall I do?
Rupert, Oxford

A: Go fuck yourself"

[Suzie Q]

A joy to read.
Wonderful, wicked, razor-sharp wit.
I had read A. A. Gill's work in The Sunday Times, his reports from war zones and more frivolous articles such as his television reviews... which usually made me fairly angry, as I rarely agreed with him.
Having read Uncle Dysfunction, I realise now, what great fun he must have been to know.
I've been feeling extremely sad since my mum died (2024)... Reading this collection from his Esquire column had cheered me up no end.
It was good to read something light-hearted and irreverent.

[Clinton J Hughes]

Thoughtful, crude and hilarious

So good. Jeremy Clarkson recommended this book so I picked it up to check it out - it was fantastic. It really put some important topics into perspective. Highly recommended

[Alastair Hill]

A collection of agony uncle columns which are overall somewhat mildly amusing, but not much more.

Some are witty, others just unnecessarily blue and more often than not they are just the ramblings of the bloke down the pub who always has an opinion about everything.

[Pondjol]

Somehow, I could relate to most of the contents of the book. Exquisitely written. Sarcasm and satire at its best.

[Beatrix Tung]

Entertaining enough.

Felt a bit lost, would have been better if there were dates in the ebook.

[Woff]

I got this for Kim but ended up hogging it. That casting for the reworked Inside Out...

[Vasil Kolev]

Very fun and concise.

[Colin]

I know I'm not supposed to like A A Gill (#saveTheBaboons) but this is a very funny book, stuffed with snorkworthy moments and occasional bursts of actual wisdom.

[Andrew]

3.75

[Amir]

Witty. Funny. I’d want a drink with him. He seems to be a soft hearted man posing as a cynic.

[Jacques]

Too obscene for me.

[Evan]

Razor-sharp and wickedly funny, but more than one mention too many of British genitalia.

[Jordan Powell]

Well written and funny.

[Sarah Evans]

Uncle Dysfunctional by AA Gill is an absolute gem of a book that had me laughing out loud from start to finish.

Uncle Dysfunctional (Gill) was Esquire's resident advice columnist. Whether you're struggling to satisfy your other half, having a crisis over your baldness, don't like your daughter's boyfriend, or need the definitive rules on shorts, leather jackets and man-bags, AA Gill has all the answers - but you'd better brace yourself first.

It's a hilarious collection of 'advice' that showcases Gill's razor-sharp wit and unique perspective on life. If you're in need of a good laugh and a dose of irreverent humour, look no further!

[Zoë]

Proper funny, actual belly-laughs, the sort of lively, intelligent writing that you want to share with others. Worked really well as an audiobook too. Also, surprisingly insightful and quite touching at times - drew a tear once, and a reminder that we lost an inimitable talent far too soon. Loses a star for going slightly off the rails (in my view) at the end where Gill strays in to writing his own thought-experiments to answer, and then moves to sending up fictional characters and then politicians. A bit of an unwelcome departure from the otherwise brilliant ripostes to the woes of Esquire's readership. But read it, do, or Audiobook it, even better!

[Jeni]

This is a fictional collection of advice column questions and responses read by Alexander Armstrong. Some fall a bit flat, most are funny, a few hysterical and the Richard Curtis thing had people walking in from other rooms to find out what I was laughing so much at. Not keen on the Trump one so I was a tad disappointed that for me the collection ended on a low point when the rest of it was so entertaining.

[Marina]

Sentido del humor sin parar y discusiones importantes a la par, aunque no siempre.