Driving Under the Affluence: The Secret of My Excess

by Julia Phillips

Illuminating the dark corners of Los Angeles from Brentwood to the barrio, the author copes with acts of God, parenthood, liposuction, IRS collectors, and the Hollywood male establishment.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

Audio Cassette

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Julia Phillips was an American film producer and author. She co-produced with her husband, Michael (and others), three prominent films of the 1970s — The Sting, Taxi Driver, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind — and was the first female producer to win an Academy Award for Best Picture, for The Sting.

Reviews

[Giddy Girlie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked up an armful of memoirs at my local thrift store and this was amongst them. I was familiar with Phillips' previous book "You'll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again" and so I thought "why not?" and set to reading.

At a high-level, this book is about the writing process for Lunch and also goes through the release of the book and some of the reactions. However, if you haven't read and MEMORIZED Lunch this book will make little, if any, sense. She refers to people casually and you're supposed to remember their mention in her previous book to know how she feels about them - along with one of several nicknames that she's assigned to that person. It should be noted that Lunch was something like 600 pages long, so even if you'd just read it, it is likely you'd forgotten how she feels about people. Especially since everyone has an esoteric nickname that she creates for them which doesn't jive with nicknames that her friends use for those same people. For example, she refers to Madonna as "The THE" and if you didn't know that, you'd have no idea what the heck she's talking about it AND she mentions that someone associated with Madonna (manager, maybe?) was nicknamed "The the of The THE" or something like that and it just made me crazy.

Overall, this book is junk. It's allegedly a look behind-the-scenes of writing a giant Hollywood tell-all but the catch is that the prose is written like a manic person is using a refrigerator magnet poetry set to tell the story. Words are jumbled, things jump around. It really just doesn't make any sense. And even if you follow the verrrrry thin threads of logic, it's exhausting and ultimately not worth it. To track back and forth for 10 pages to figure out WHAT she's saying when in the end it was "I was drunk and stumbling on my way to the bathroom" it just didn't hold my interest. Especially since the only through-story of the entire book is "I have a tax problem" and that she's pestering people all over town to find ways to give her money to pay off her tax debts. So, as a reader, you just feel duped. You've given her a lot of money for a crappy product that she doesn't care about at all just because she wants your money and fast. She basically tells you that this is a con job and you've just been made a fool.

I read more of this book than I care to admit but officially gave it up last night. Why am I wasting my time on a story that is going no where in a prose that is illegible and frustrating to read? No thanks.

[David]

Well, despite all the reviews that might as well have compared this book to either snake venom or cat puke, in the rosy five-star glow of my just-completed reading of You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again, I decided to snag a library copy of THIS thing . . . and in less than 15 minutes here I am, shelving it as "abandoned" and jotting these few words. I hesitate to give it a star rating . . . let's just say it's a bad joke. Multitudes of gobbledegook mishmashes of non-words . . . just noise . . . and hardly a narrative line to be seen. Oh, perhaps if I'd spent 20 minutes with it . . . no, not worth it. And now I'm glad I checked out another book at the same time so I won't need to make a special trip back to return this mess.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the worst books I have ever had the misfortune to read. It is almost unreadable prose. It has no redeeming value that I could find. I loved the author's first book, You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again but that was insightful, funny, clever, and dishy.

[David Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

Driving Under the Affluence by Julia Phillips (HarperCollins 1995) (Biography) (4050).

This was advertised as a memoir of Hollywood by the first female producer to win a Best Picture Oscar. Author Julia Phillips co-produced the Best Picture Oscar-winning film The Sting (1973). I enjoy insider information and tell-all books, so this sounded appealing.

When I searched for this title among the holdings at my local library, I found that this was the second tell-all memoir by the author, so I picked them both up: Driving Under the Affluence (1995) and You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again (1991).

I have read and reviewed the older book (which was awful), and sadly the instant (more recent) volume is just as bad. It exhibits exactly the same tone and flavor of the prior account, so a quote from my review of You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again applies here too:

“This entire book reads as though it had been narrated by someone in the throes of a days-long cocaine-induced rant. Both the stylistic voice and the book’s very content were trivial to the point of inanity. Though this book was published in 1991, it surely reads like a 1970’s memoir from a denizen of the notoriously decadent but wildly popular (at the time) Studio 54. Trust me; if I heard someone nattering on about the kind of meaningless and pointless gossip that constitutes this book, I would quickly and quietly slip away and find someone else to talk with.”

My rating: 2/10 (downgraded by one from my review of her other memoir for not learning anything from her first book), finished 5/17/25 (4050).

[Helle Huxley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read this because I remember finding, “You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again” really fascinating back when it came out. Thankfully, I bought this book second hand for a dollar because it was truly unreadable. Rambling, incoherent, and made me rethink my take on her previous book. Was she able to write at all, ever? Respect to her as an early woman in the entertainment business but please save yourself the agony and do not read this book.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

So .... I have read other reviews of this book, and it seemed that the majority say it is a one star read. I, on the other hand, really enjoyed it. She lost me sometimes. She did. Her mind goes all over the place at points in the book, but I liked it. Her first book "You'll Never Eat Lunch in this Town Again" was the one that people raved over. I haven't read it yet. This one is about what happened "after" that book, after the success, and it was just about her. I like her. She seems a personable lady you'd want to hang out with. The gov't is after her for taxes and even though she's brilliant (she helped produce The Sting, Taxi, Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and makes all sorts of money when she produces things, she can't keep up with her tax bill. She has health problems, talks about the LA Riots, and OJ Simpson (She knew them!). I found it fascinating. A good read that will stay on my shelf. I'm looking forward to reading You'll Never Eat Lunch.

[Kristen Leanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked this one up a while back, from the dollar store I believe, and finally got around to reading it. I give it a few stars for her wit and because she's clever, but this is a book that really didn't need to be written. She should've stopped after You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again, and I'm guessing probably would have if she hadn't needed the money. Her Hollywood adventures at this point just aren't that interesting, and neither are the names she drops everywhere. Since I'm only out a dollar though, I'm not mad. And like I said, she was a clever and funny woman, I'll give her that. Too bad she ran out of good stories to tell.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nowhere near as good as her previous book, You Will Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again". By this point, it looks as if Phillips has burned too many bridges and brain cells. She has run out of people to expose and is reduced to self-mockery. It's actually kind of sad. RIP.

[Kathryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Made it to page 162 before I conceded to DNF. I had read Julia's previous book in college, and though it's been years I recall enjoying it. This one is all over the place - it reads like drugged-out babble.

[Stefanie Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[Nathan Rabin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst. Book. Ever.