The Double Life is Twice as Good

by Jonathan Ames

JONATHAN AMES'S LATEST BOOK, his eighth, is a hilarious, erotically charged, and insightful collection of articles, essays, cartoons, and short stories. With an HBO series based on this collection's centerpiece, "Bored to Death"; a beloved novel, The Extra Man, soon to be released as a movie; a critically acclaimed graphic novel, The Alcoholic; and an ongoing series of strange literary and not-so-literary performance events, Ames has proven himself to be a writer of diverse and unusual talents.

In The Double Life Is Twice as Good, Ames's odd, Zelig-like life as a writer is on full display, as he covers the U.S. Open and a Goth music festival, profiles Marilyn Manson and Lenny Kravitz, gives a speech at an annual gathering of passionate corduroy lovers, and attends a class on how to better pleasure women. On the fiction side, the short stories feature plenty of eros, heartbreak, and sexualities of all stripes and inclinations.

Ames's unique style and humor shines throughout this new volume, reminding us yet again why The Portland Oregonian dubbed him "an edgier David Sedaris."

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Short Stories, Humor, Collections, Memoir, Journalism

223 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2009

About the author

Jonathan Ames is an American author who has written a number of novels and comic memoirs, and is the creator of two television series, Bored to Death (HBO) and Blunt Talk (STARZ). In the late '90s and early 2000s, he was a columnist for the New York Press for several years, and became known for self-deprecating tales of his sexual misadventures. He also has a long-time interest in boxing, appearing occasionally in the ring as "The Herring Wonder".
Two of his novels have been adapted into films: The Extra Man in 2010, and You Were Never Really Here in 2017. Ames was a co-screenwriter of the former and an executive producer of the latter.

Reviews

[Oriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let's be honest: it's not like there was a chance I wasn't going to like this book. Jonathan Ames is the best best best, though of course extremely polarizing – you either want to hear about transexuals and suckling and bizarre sexual escapades and shitting oneself, or you don't. And I guess if you asked me that question not in the context of a Jonathan Ames book, I probably wouldn't be so enthusiastic about all those subjects. But there is something so sweet and simple about the way he writes about these things... I guess what I'm saying is that female ejaculation never sounded so, um, pleasant?

But lest you think that various and unappetizing bodily effusions are the only things you'll find herein, let me disabuse you of that notion right quick. In addition to the aforementioned, you will delightedly read about:

* The vast and varied audience members at Illinois's Gothicfest, including a Chomsky fan and a sword-seller and a very cool dad and lots and lots and lots of silly people in black clothes.
* Drinking absinthe with Marylin Manson (who, like female ejaculation, I have found nearly so charming as I did within these pages).
* Going clubbing with Lenny Kravitz, who also managed to come across as pretty interesting.
* Courderoy and its appreciators.
* Spending thousands of dollars (courtesy of G.Q.) in one weekend in the Meatpacking District.
* And lots and lots and lots of sex (duh).

Anyway, the essays are all great, just as great as any of his essays always are. They were all previously published, in big-name outlets like Spin and the New York Times and such. There are also some short stories here, and while I'm not generally a fan of his fiction, the subject matter in the stories was close enough to his essays that I thought they were all lovely. (In fact, one of them I didn't realize was fiction until the very very end.) Plus there's some diary entries about his travels in Europe as a teenager, and others about his son.

Oh and also! There's an essay about that boxing match he did a year or two ago which I actually went to see, and the whole time I was reading the essay, I was (totally irrationally) hoping he was going to say something like And right before the bell rang I looked out over the ropes and there was this sweet smiling twenty-something girl with curly hair and I thought she looked like someone I'd sure like to be friends with.

No dice. But I still love him!!

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basically a collection of loose ends by one of the most enjoyable living american authors right now. Reading Ames is sort of like putting butter on a really hot piece of toast. You know it is going to taste great, and this gentlman never fails me.

What we have here are introductions, short stories and some journalistic pieces. His interview with Marilyn Manson is great. The book will be coming out shortly.

[Imogen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is for Jonathan Ames, so if you're not Jonathan Ames you can read it but you might not get that much out of it.

Oh, Jonathan Ames, this is a half-assed book. I enjoyed it, and blew through it- semifictional and confessional accounts of sexual inadequacy, New York City, New Jersey Jewishness and Lenny Kravitz are the book equivalent of nachos- but I don't feel like I'm walking away with much. You're obsessed with transsexual women and objectifying them in a way that reads like you're not objectifying them, you won't shut up about your failures as a capital m Man, and just about everything you write is constantly, self-consciously disclosed as being written by a writer in a story he's written. (Thanks, New Journalism, you fuck.) We've been here a few times before, haven't we? The story about your life history as a fighter, culminating in a second epilogue that was far longer than the rest of the piece- about fighting Craig Davidson in the ring as the Herring Wonder- was motherfucking inspired, but most of the rest of this book is just... I don't know, kind of... *nice*.

Will you please write another novel? You are a good novelist, and writing a bunch of ten-page pieces where you talk about how Esquire or Spin has paid you to stay in a hotel or kick it with Marilyn Manson... it's masturbation. It's enjoyable, but it's like, afterward, kind of unfulfilling.

Not to talk shit about masturbation. Masturbation is awesome! I'm just saying, the long excerpts from your teenage diaries (if I hadn't read this, that would sound like hyperbole) were so boring I skipped them.

You are a good writer! Your motherfuckin In Cold Blood is still totally ahead of you, so please get around to it; it's going to be awesome, and until then I'm going to keep being disappointed- not super disappointed, just a little bit- by these miscellanies you keep publishing.




PS Please stop using the word "tranny," it's an offensive slur. Would you enjoy being referred to by offensive slurs?

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jonathan Ames is a writer whose work is very up and down in terms of quality and The Double Life is Twice as Good is very representative of Ames’ work with the essays and short stories collected here proving this dichotomy.

The opening selection, Bored to Death, is really good. A bored novelist called Jonathan Ames posts an ad on Craigslist pretending to be an amateur, unlicensed private investigator and begins getting cases. Originally appearing in the literary journal McSweeney’s, this short story is also the basis for the HBO TV series Bored to Death starring Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis and Ted Danson, which is a supergreat show, though this original fiction is a lot darker than the TV series – which I thought was a nice surprise actually. Generally though the fiction in this book is pretty poor stuff. His Diary of a Book Tour isn’t bad but the others tend to be just a couple of pages long and felt like it took as long to write as it did to read, they’re just so insubstantial.

His non-fiction takes up most of this book and is definitely the highlight of this collection. His interview with Marilyn Manson was pretty great and once more showed MM to be a decent, down-to-earth chap who leads a pretty amazing life. Ames caught him in the aftermath of his divorce from Dita Von Teese and having just met Rachel Evan Wood with MM swooning over her – MM in love! Lovely. Ames even manages to drink MM under the table! His interview with Lenny Kravitz was similarly interesting – Kravitz seems like less of an interesting person but also seems like someone you could have a normal conversation with. And who knew he was celibate?! Another highlight included a trip to a Goth music festival as Ames tries to find out why people are drawn to Goth as a lifestyle choice.

Unfortunately not all of the non-fiction stuff hits home. His review of the recently gentrified Meatpacking District in New York is ok for a few pages – but 27 pages? It’s too long. It also features his adult-adolescent friend Mangina (obviously not his real name) who wears a mangina and does improv theatrics. This isn’t the only essay where Mangina shows up and it’s clear Ames has a colourful social life, taking part in avant garde theatrics with his eccentric friends. I don’t have a problem with people like this but when you’re middle-aged and still acting like you’re 12, you can come across as somewhat tedious and twee rather than charming, which is how Mangina and Ames come across in these essays.

Ames is an interesting fellow though. He talks about literally boxing fellow authors in PR stunts to promote their books. Ames does amateur boxing under the name The Herring Wonder, which is definitely interesting and follows Hemingway’s footsteps, who also boxed for a while, but Ames’ essay on his fighting career isn’t particularly compelling. He also includes lengthy excerpts of his diary from when he was in his early 20s which are extraordinarily self-indulgent and dull. He waffles on about how he’s in love with this woman and how she broke his heart and so on, and it’s such a worthless addition that it feels like it was included as padding to lengthen this rather slim volume to a more reasonable size instead of its quality or insight.

Ames is a little too eager to reveal details of his sex life which can be a bit off-putting – the piece on going down on a woman in the dark whom he didn’t realise was a virgin, feeling moisture around his mouth and not realising until later that it was blood, is both a bit disgusting and funny. Then the numerous other essays that feature Ames going down on various other women just felt repetitive and that he was trying a little too hard to be shocking and hilarious, never really accomplishing either.

I quite liked The Double Life because Ames is a talented writer so that even if the essay or piece you’re reading isn’t as engaging as others, it’s at least well written. And despite the misfires, when he’s on, he’s really great and the good parts make reading this worth it. Ames is kind of like David Sedaris’ deviant cousin whose books aren’t quite as good as Sedaris’ but contain some entertaining gems nonetheless. The Double Life is by no means essential reading but good for dipping in and out of while reading other books.

[Asciigod · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Jonathan Ames. I like his style. I share a lot of the same, mildly perverted, interests as he does.

However, "The Double Life" suffers from double dipping on content. Some of the pieces are great fun, and none are bad. But almost all are repeated, essentially the same, throughout the book. The "Department of Redundancy Department" called, flustered about the frequent allusions to transexuals and semi-poverty.

By the time I'd read the fourth story that based itself, marginally, around the theme of cunnilingus I'd grown tired of all this foreplay, and yearned for the main event. Luckily, these stories are often brief, and (given my tastes) ultimately palatable. One ends up wishing for more girth in the subject matter, and more variety of approaches.

Enjoyable beach reading, but not quintessential.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sure, he's already done a couple of other books like this (essays, articles, fiction that seems like real life) but Ames is just so good at it. Besides the painfully familiar and hilarious stories about his love life and weird friends, some of the best highlights here come from the journalism chapters, where Ames immerses himself into another celebrities life--like Marylin Manson or Lenny Kravitz. It would be great to someday read a whole book of these kind of profiles by Ames. Oh--and you also get the cool story, Bored to Death, which is the basis for the new HBO show that Ames is behind. Jonathan Ames is great. You can't go wrong with him.

[Yuliya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I laughed out loud. I was perplexed as to what was fiction and what wasn't because, could this really be his life?

It's great. You should read it. Especially you, Kayleigh Shaw--it's coming your way.

[Alvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great, great short stories plus fine, fine journalism, plus some highly questionable old journal entries... questionable as in, maybe they're not that interesting.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I bought this book by Jonathan Ames during a four-hour layover in SFO. I didn’t know anything about the guy, but I read a few pages and decided it was something I could read on the plane. As it turns out, he’s semi-famous for being one of the “Three Jonathans,” a group of Jewish writers from Brooklyn. I don’t know who the other two are, but I’m guessing Jonathan S. Foer is one or possibly even both of the remaining two.

His writing is strangely compelling, and for the longest time I couldn’t figure out why—because on the surface, it’s completely vacuous. Then, a few weeks after I’d finished the book, it all clicked. Ninety percent of his stories are about women who attend his book signings and subsequently have vaginal intercourse with him in a nearby Best Western hotel.


I kept reading these stories of women who had read his books and, as a consequence, needed to have sex with him, and I noticed that in one story, a woman wanted to sleep with him because she had read about other women sleeping with him in a previous book.


I kind of liked this, because it’s well known among evolutionary biologists that a common mating strategy in animals is to select based on what others of the species find attractive. So these women read about Ames’s sexual exploits, which makes him attractive to them, which in turn gives him more material for stories that then attract even more women. It’s like he’s running a sexual pyramid scheme or something.



But there’s still a puzzle: how did he get the first woman to sleep with him because of his stories about women who sleep with him because of his stories? This might be the chicken-or-egg mystery of our generation.

[Thurston Hunger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard-boiled, but still not quite cooked all the way through. To be a bon vivant these days, you've got to take some shots I guess, or just osmotically absorb some of the lifestyles of the rich and famous by interviewing them. The odd blend of the self-deprecating with the self-assured didn't quite provide the mood lighting for me that apparently is does for many fine libidinous young people. Is that an offshoot of Lenny Kravitz' commitment to celibacy.

Overall an easier read than it wants to be. I'm intrigued enough to perhaps check out the HBO spin-off, but really I need to finish "The Night Of" amongst other things first.

Possible tip: Read the diary bits first, if you like those, then you'll love this book.

[Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book that I’ve read by Ames. I was inspired to read it because I’ve loved two TV series that he’s written - Bored to Death and Blunt Talk. I just really enjoy his twisted sense of humor. This book is a collection of fiction, essays, and short stories (most of which are non-fiction). There are plenty of laughs and I think that the Portland Oregonian’s description of him as “an edgier David Sedalia” is very apt. It’s not often that I find a writer who can regularly make me laugh out loud, which Ames does. I’ll definitely be reading more of his work in the future.

[Andrew Kline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Feels good to get this off my Kindle. I started reading it probably over a year ago. I loved the TV show Bored to Death, but it turns out I'm not a huge fan of Ames writing, at least his non fiction. Honestly, it's been so long since I started this collection, I don't really remember the fiction. I'm asexual, so I'm not particularly interested in his sexual conquests, which he writes about A LOT! It's not bragging though, and his self deprivation keeps it from being obnoxious, but still...

[Myriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A writer that writes about writing

I bought this wanting to read about the origins of the show “Bored to Death” and I got way more than what I was looking for. In fact, the show seems to just use this collection of essays for a lot of the ideas for episodes.

Johnathan Ames does a good job of captivating his readers and this collection of essays and stories is certainly very selected to give you an idea about how Johnathan Ames pretends to live

[Nadine Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging essays by the creator of perhaps my favourite series (HBO's Bored To Death). Minus one star only because the fiction is not as adroitly written as the essays. A quick, absorbing, hilarious read. Occasionally dark. Soulful throughout. A winner. I will be thinking about these writings for a long time.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed The Double Life... and recommend it to folks who enjoy Sedaris, Palahniuk, & Waters. Funny & well-paced...nothing gruesome, but a fair share sexual encounters. Will definitely explore his other work.

[Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. He's a good storyteller but it's a little tiring to just read about all of the sex and one night stands he has. The man is clearly derived of creature comfort. I dunno. The non sex stories are good. Give it a shot, I guess, since we're all going to be trapped inside for the next month anyways.

[Natalie]

As usual, I don't like to rate books which include memoirs or personal essays, and the work in this book is deeply personal. I enjoyed all of it, and I *really* enjoyed some of it. Some heavy stuff and some big laughs, all in one little collection. Definitely engrossing.

[Seth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The piece "Bored to Death" that is the basis for the HBO show is REALLY good. The rest just kind of cobbled together. It has some great moments.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a wonderful collection of Ames stories. Always thrilling with plenty of underground education into his wild life!

[Peter McDermott · Rating 1 out of 5]

This boring book was twice as dull.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of it I enjoyed but good god who let him include his teenage diaries in this? Talk about self indulgent, and criminally, obnoxious and boring

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book from the moment that my friend Rebecca grabbed it off of a shelf at the venerable City Lights (that's right, I dropped that name) and said, "This is the book that Bored to Death was based on!" (Bored to Death, for the uninitiated, is a mystery-comedy series that used to run on HBO that has now been cancelled. The main character is a fictionalized Jonathan Ames. I think it is the second-funniest show ever after, of course, the ne plus ultra that is Arrested Development.)

Sadly, for the most part, this collection left me wishing there was more to it. Bored-to-Death-the-short-story is almost nothing like Bored-to-Death-the-TV-show. You can recognize traces of the pilot episode, but it is played like a Raymond Chandler novel and played extremely straight. After that, it breaks down into Journalism, Personal Essays, and Short Stories.

Journalism is easily the best section of the three, with Ames taking weird, wonderful trips to a Goth convention, the US Open, the Meatpacking District of New York City, and hanging out with Marilyn Manson and Lenny Kravitz. Personal Essays is the weakest, with some occasional amusing bits, but it's mostly painfully recycled content from other places. (I believe I mentioned this in my review for William Gibson's Distrust That Particular Flavor but it bears repeating: if I want to read the foreword for another book, I would be reading that book. Short Stories has some good pieces in it, but they mostly seem like thinly fictionalized Personal Essays (i.e. stories about people that Ames has slept with).

All in all, I should probably be rating this book lower, but I'm willing to give it the third star based on the strength of the Journalism section alone. I'm not sure if I'd grab this off the shelf at City Lights again, but if it turned up in a used-book bin, I would recommend giving it at least a shot if you're not familiar with Ames.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not the Jonathan Ames I thought I knew from HBO's BORED TO DEATH (which is a short story in this collection, and, man, is it hardcore, and not light and funny like the show. Very disturbing, actually). Ames is in his forties, and this work is a collection of short stories, personal essays, and old columns from various magazines and newspapers.

On the one hand, I found Ames contemptuous, in his language and in the way he admits to his failings. He's obsessed with sex: it's featured (often erotically) in all of these pieces, which wouldn't be so bad, except that he is talking as an older man (which, he admits, is somewhat creepy). I found his tone in general, on all topics, to be slightly distasteful.

On the other hand, Ames is completely honest in his writings, whether they be fictional or not (and from his personal essays, we can see where he got the ideas for some of his stories), which made me slightly uncomfortable. But it also made me respect him. And I found myself agreeing with him on many observations, and laughing at some of his mishaps. And who wouldn't think a dude who parties with Lenny Kravitz and Marilyn Manson (albeit for material for articles) isn't cool?

Summary: if you're a fan of BORED TO DEATH (as am I), enjoy it, and maybe stay away from the short story, which, again, is disturbing. But if you're looking for a Chuck Klosterman-type read by someone with an even meaner streak, go for Ames. Because, I admit, you'll enjoy it.

[Kevin Krein · Rating 3 out of 5]

sometimes, i wish that ames wasn't so self-referential. starting with his novel "wake up, sir!," just about everything he's put out since then-- fiction or not-- references his previous work or characters. it gets confusing honestly, constantly blurring the lines between his essays and fiction.

anyway, this latest collection of short stories and essays felt phoned-in to me. it opens with a somewhat refreshing short story called "bored to death," which is the basis for a new HBO series i guess. from there it goes into some magazine pieces and old journal entries. and then into short fiction, and all the pieces bored into erotica, which was kind of weird. ames has never been shy about sex, but i just didn't expect it all in one place.

in all of his pieces he talks about how broke he is, but for someone who has published three novels, three non-fiction collections, a graphic novel, and who has sold the rights for feature film and series-- you gotta wonder if he's just shitty with his money or if he just doesn't get paid as much as other, more "popular" writers do.

my introduction to ames was through matt berninger from the national. he quotes ames in a song, and mentioned his books in interviews. after reading just about the entire ames canon, i wish he would come up with something new-- not just a new release, but an idea new to him.

[Nickie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do really like Jonathan Ames but this 'collection' is just taking the piss. Consisting of a few good short stories, a load of bragging about some shags he's had and some scribblings he found round-a-bout his flat stopping just short of the label on his underpants. Does anyone really want to read the foreword that he wrote for another book? Or an email that he sent to his friends? Because he really does include an email that he sent to his friends. Or the tedious diary of his teenage travelings around Europe?

It's a shame, because Bored To Death, the first short story has been made into a HBO drama with Jason Schwartzmann and Ted Danson and Zack Galifawotsit so a lot of people will probably come to Ames via this book. It's not the greatest entry point. But though it's a bit of a lazy collection, that may be the publisher more than Ames, and what's good is very good, so it still merits 3 stars.

[Robert Kemp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I gave this book 3 out of 5, I still greatly enjoyed it. I' d never read anything by Jonathan Ames, nor had I ever heard of him. I thought the title was interesting and picked it up out of curiosity at Barnes and Noble. I was pleasantly surprised to find an engaging interview with Lenny Kravitz. The rest of the book turned out to be a bizzare collection of interviews, essays, and short fiction. The thing I like most is how personal and intrusive this book is. It contains thoughts and outlooks that I would never have the balls to share, let alone publish. On the same token, at times I found it to be a little too intrusive and personal. Overall I found it a refreshing, though strange, change of pace to my usual dose of fiction.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the Bored to Death story, better than the series, I think, but then I'm also a fan of Chandler, Hammett, and so on.

I also really enjoyed the journalism section. I was reminded in a good way of Chuck Klosterman--a flawed journalist/essayist with some writing talent and interesting topics.

The personal essays and fiction sections weren't bad, but somewhat repetitive. How many times do you want to read the author likes to go down on women? If you think more is better, this is the book for you.

Overall, I'd recommend the book to others, telling them that the opening story and first section are must reads, and the remainder optional.

[Chris Ruggeri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Woohoo! Done with the Ames! Only took me seven months, give or take. Always seems to happen with me and short story collections. Especially ones like this where it's basically just Ames empyting out his hard drive. He's got everything in here from meandering self-indulgent diary entries to six word articles to graphic comics. It just seemed all over the place and I couldn't get into a rhythm with it and it's more graphic than I would really prefer. Guess it just wasn't for me. Still, feels good to cross it off.

[Nikki Metzgar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Obviously I picked the wrong Ames book to start with. It's pretty lazy, and aside from the Bored to Death story, not worth anyone's time. I feel like he knew it would be an easy paycheck to slap together previously published articles, an email, and some scribbled semi-autobiographical essays on fucking trannies--none of which made me think he was a singular, uniquely talented author.

His style, which largely consists of not using contractions, is quirky and enjoyable initially. Then at some point you've read too many nipple descriptions and you're completely over it. And by you, I mean me.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jonathan Ames' latest offering is entertaining but suffers from its brevity and somewhat repetitious journalism outings. The latter is hardly Ames' fault... magazine editors apparently can't bring themselves to dispatch our dear author for anything other than fish-out-of-water interview pieces.

It's a quick, entertaining read that is over too quickly. Here's hoping he has a novel in the works.