Jonathan Yardley
…[Waters] pays tribute to various men and women who in one way or another helped him become the man he is. If that inspires you to murmur, "Thanks a lot but no thanks," well, you're entitled, but Waters is a greater National Treasure than 90 percent of the people who are given "Kennedy Center Honors" each December. Unlike those gray eminences of the show-business establishment, Waters doesn't kowtow to the received wisdom, he flips it the bird…He has the ability to show humanity at its most ridiculous and make that funny rather than repellent.
—The Washington Post
Tom Carson
The nostalgia that…infused Waters's movies from "Hairspray" on turns engagingly unabashed in Role Models, the latest and best of his cobbled-together exercises in autobiography at one remove…His acolytes won't need a reviewer's say-so to lap up every word of Role Models…But dilettantes at liberty to skip around will find a lot to charm them. In a way, the best joke in the book is that…Waters can't help revealing on every other page that he's both sentimental and good-hearted.
—The New York Times
Kirkus Reviews
The famed cult-film director recalls the famous-and not-so-famous-people he has idolized over the years. Waters is known for his campy, often hilarious films, including Pink Flamingos (1972) and the mainstream hit Hairspray (1988). In this consistently charming and witty collection of essays, he fondly remembers the many artists he has admired throughout his life, from stars, such as Little Richard, to such near-unknown figures as the 1960s Baltimore stripper Lady Zorro. Though Waters jumps from subject to subject, he somehow integrates it all into a coherent whole. The chapter "Johnny and Me" combines the author's interviews with legendary singer Johnny Mathis and the obscure actress Patty McCormack, who played an evil little girl in the 1954 movie The Bad Seed, as well as encomiums to the actress Margaret Hamilton and Bobby "Boris" Pickett, singer of the 1962 novelty hit "The Monster Mash." Elsewhere, the author interviews two of his favorite underground gay pornographers in similarly rapturous terms. In general, Waters admires anyone who has the courage to follow his or her idiosyncratic muse, and he makes no distinction between so-called "high" and "low" art. The author is at his most engaging when he expresses disillusionment. For example, he counts a former member of the Manson Family, Leslie Van Houten, among his friends, and believes that she has reformed in prison-but he also expresses regret that he exploited the Manson murders for kitsch value in his early films. Waters also presents a poignant interview with Lady Zorro's daughter, during which he learns that the outrageous personality he admired so much was actually masking a selfish, irresponsible alcoholic. The only misfireis a short, somewhat vague appreciation of Tennessee Williams, which lacks the zing of the rest of the portraits. Overall, however, Waters delivers a worthy tribute to his personal pantheon of artistic icons. An impressive, heartfelt collection by a true American iconoclast. Agent: Bill Clegg
Publishers Weekly
Waters waxes poetic about the books, artists, and individuals who have influenced him in this desultory memoir, and his selections have a fascinating range, from the novels of Ivy Compton-Burnett to Leslie Van Houten (of Charles Manson fame). His choice to narrate may have seemed a given; after all, fans would appreciate hearing his delivery and distinctive high-pitched voice. However, his projection is inconsistent from word to word, and listeners will have to continually adjust the volume to better hear him. He does convey a certain charm and rhythm with his narration, but it's not enough to compensate for the challenging soundscape. A Farrar, Straus, and Giroux hardcover (Reviews, May 3). (June)
From the Publisher
Waters is a greater National Treasure than 90 percent of the people who are given ‘Kennedy Center Honors' each December. Unlike those gray eminences of the show-business establishment, Waters doesn't kowtow to the received wisdom, he flips it the bird . . . [Waters] has the ability to show humanity at its most ridiculous and make that funny rather than repellent.” —Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post
“His acolytes won't need a reviewer's say-so to lap up every word of "Role Models," . . . But dilettantes at liberty to skip around will find a lot to charm them. In a way, the best joke is that – Baader-Meinhof gang, outsider porn and all—Waters can't help revealing one very page that he's both sentimental and good-hearted.” —Tom Carson, New York Times Book Review
“Waters may not be a gloater, but there is a delightful lunatic glee that pulses through the book. It combusts in the final chapter, titled ‘Cult Leader,' which exhorts readers to rise up against the ‘tyranny of good taste,' wear their belts off center, and infiltrate living crèches. Happily, for all the reflective and tender moments, Waters never suppresses his radiant pervert self.” —Liz Brown, Bookforum.com
“What is exhilarating about Waters is that he's not kidding, that he's the reporter, comedian and poet-in-chief of a fantasy cult which thinks ‘there's only one way to die—spontaneous combustion. The unexplained phenomenon of being so guilty and happy, so obsessed, so driven and so fanatical that you just burst into flames for no apparent reason on the street.' He remains one of our most necessary fellow Americans.” —Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News
“The collision of the eloquent and the profane is probably the best reason to read this quasimemoir-cum-how-to, aside from its deeper philosophy: judge not lest ye have the whole story, indulge your inner pervert (within reason), and read, for the love of Divine. Waters puts it another way: ‘I believe in the opposite of original sin. I don't believe anybody is born guilty or evil.' Glory-hole-lujah. Amen.” —Heather McCormack, Library Journal
“[Role Models is] an impressive, heartfelt collection by a true American iconoclast.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred)
“How did somebody from a quiet Baltimore neighborhood grow up to become the outlandish, brilliant, and insane John Waters? Two words: Johnny Mathis.” —Augusten Burroughs, author of Running with Scissors
“A delirious descent into Waters World, Role Models is a true-life confessional from one of America's greatest ironists. John Waters is a man always ready and willing to say the unsayable. He is the dark mirror of contemporary culture. From haute couture to low culture, from literary outsiders to lapsed actors, he delivers razor-sharp pen portraits of the women and men who have perverted and inspired him by turns. And yet Waters's warped imagination is always humane, his judgments insightful. Role Models is as much a philosophical manifesto as it is an utterly hilarious and shamelessly entertaining read.” —Philip Hoare, author of The Whale
“John Waters has a great gift for appreciation—whether for toothless lesbian strippers in Baltimore or the most rarefied painters and writers of our day. He is a dandy who has done away with everyone else's hierarchies and created a new world that conforms only to his own taste for trash and the sublime. He is frank, funny, and (strangely enough) both sensible and outrageous.” —Edmund White, author of City Boy
“Waters is a greater National Treasure than 90 percent of the people who are given ‘Kennedy Center Honors' each December. Unlike those gray eminences of the show-business establishment, Waters doesn't kowtow to the received wisdom, he flips it the bird . . . [Waters] has the ability to show humanity at its most ridiculous and make that funny rather than repellent. To quote his linear ancestor W.C. Fields: It's a gift.” —Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post
“His acolytes won't need a reviewer's say-so to lap up every word of "Role Models," . . . But dilettantes at liberty to skip around will find a lot to charm them. In a way, the best joke is that – Baader-Meinhof gang, outsider porn and all—Waters can't help revealing one very page that he's both sentimental and good-hearted. Pass the relish, Uncle John.” —Tom Carson, New York Times Book Review
“If Waters began his career by seeking to infuriate, he now has mellowed to a place of gleeful tweaking. ‘Role Models' is charming and chatty. . . it also reveals the making of a unique American artist through his influences. When he calls for people to make him a cult leader of filth —having left trash behind for becoming too acceptable—it's hard for any outsider not to want to follow along.” —Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times
“The cult director's memoirs are always so witty and pleasurable that you want to read whole chapters aloud.” —Details
“What Vasari is to the lives of the artists, what Burke is to the peerage, what the Social Register is to the elite, so is John Waters to the lunatic fringe. In Role Models, John Waters makes us gasp with admiration and joy at these defiant prime ribs of America's underbelly.” —John Guare, author of Six Degrees of Separation
Library Journal
Cult filmmaker Waters gives us another peek into the workings of his strange mind in his third autobiographical book, following Shock Value (1981) and Crackpot (1986). This time, the so-called Pope of Trash profiles the many personalities who have influenced him throughout his life, both famous (e.g., Tennessee Williams) and lesser-known (e.g., lesbian stripper Lady Zorro and foul-mouthed Baltimore bar owner Esther Martin). Waters himself narrates, in a fast-paced, conversational tone. He frequently goes off on tangents about episodes in his own life, but he is never boring and often hilarious. Waters's fans and those not easily offended will enjoy. [The Farrar hc was an Editors' Spring Pick, LJ 2/15/10.—Ed.]—Phillip Oliver, Univ. of North Alabama Lib., Florence
JULY 2010 - AudioFile
In this memoir, filmmaker John Waters (PINK FLAMINGOS) discusses people he admires and proves himself a preeminent provocateur. But it’s not all shock value. He’s an eloquent writer who can turn a witty phrase almost as deftly as one of the book’s subjects, Tennessee Williams, and do so with convincing style. This goes for his narration as well. Waters comes off as insightful—if not excessively camp—but his flamboyance is infectious. He minces but doesn’t mince words. Although some may take umbrage at his choices of talismans—Manson family murderer Leslie Van Houten, for instance—Waters, who once venerated the murderous cult for being “the filthiest people alive,” has to be admired for his ironic sensibilities. His embrace of everything politically incorrect is actually refreshing in the current climate. J.S.H. 2011 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
