Dandy in the Underworld
by Sebastian Horsley
(Harper Perennial)
Horsley, a British dandy and putative artist notorious for having undergone a crucifixion, turns a grim childhood into cocktail-party fodder in this compulsively fizzy memoir. He spins tales of his wealthy father’s infidelities and his alcoholic mother’s crashed Jaguars, suicide attempts, sojourns in a mental hospital, and second marriage to a cult member clad entirely in orange. The glee for destructive behavior is less charming in Horsley’s subsequent misadventures with drugs and sex, which, he claims, include sleeping with “more than 1,000 prostitutes, at a cost of £100,000,” and later turning tricks himself. His saving grace is an utter lack of self-pity; instead, he never fails to find himself adorable. The book’s most loving passages detail his quest for sartorial splendor: he shows up for a shark-research expedition carrying a pink lace parasol, and, in the throes of heroin addiction, has his tailor customize his suits to hold hidden syringes.
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