Drink, Play, F@#k: One Man's Search for Anything Across Ireland, Vegas, and Thailand

Written by Andrew Gottlieb

Narrated by Dick Hill

One man’s spiritual journey to rediscover how much he hates spiritual journeys. “A dizzyingly fun parody” (Publishers Weekly).

In Drink, Play, F@#k, Bob Sullivan, a jilted husband, sets off to explore the world, experience a meaningful connection with the divine, and rediscover his passion. His travels lead him from his home in New York City to a drinking bender across Ireland, through the glitz and glamour that is Las Vegas, and to the hedonistic pleasure palaces of Thailand. After a lifetime of playing it safe, Sullivan finally follows his heart and lives out everyone’s deepest fantasies. For who among us hasn’t dreamed of standing stark naked, head upturned, and mouth agape beneath a cascading torrent of Guinness Stout? What could be more exhilarating than losing every penny you have because Charlie Weis went for a meaningless last-second field goal? And what sensate creature could ever doubt that the greatest pleasure known to man can be found in a leaky bamboo shack filled with glassy-eyed, bruised Asian hookers? Bob Sullivan has a lot to teach us about life. Let’s just pray we have the wisdom to put aside our preconceptions and listen. Because what Sullivan finds isn’t at all what he expected.

“Two years after invading every bookshelf across the world, something positive has come out of Elizabeth Gilbert’s mind-numbingly self-absorbed memoir: Andrew Gottlieb’s fictional response.” —Monica Weymouth, Metro

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Feb 14, 2009
• ISBN: 9781423383000

Andrew Gottlieb

Andrew Gottlieb is a comedy writer with experience in sit coms, feature films, and books. He is currently writing and producing Z Rock, an original TV show that he co-created for the Independent Film Channel.

Reviews for Drink, Play, F@#k

[tommysalami_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My cousin Pete gave me this for Christmas and it looks like just what I needed before marriage. I haven't read Eat Pray Love, but this is a spoof written from the POV of the main character's husband. He too goes on an inspirational quest.
The book is good fun, but you can tell he was in a rush to get it done to capitalize on EPL. It seems to meander and then find its way quickly at the end.
It's still quite funny and worth reading, it's not some diatribe against the book it spoofs.
I enjoyed it, and would recommend it. It's not fratboy humor as you might suspect.

[crmass_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a decent book, but it will not blow you away. There are some funny parts and it doesn't drag, yet I felt it was a little thin.

[sandydog1_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not as sophomoric nor prurient as expected, but then around Chapter 31 or so (there are as many chapters as there are numerals on a roulette wheel) the plot jumps the shark. I mean it almost literally jumps the shark. I never read Eat,Pray and Love so perhaps I've missed a great deal here.

[jerseygirl21-977813 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I thought it was kind of cute and had some funny parts.

[shelleyraec · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not as funny as I hoped. It reads more like a sitcom that relies on visuals than a novel with enough detail and nuance to really draw you in. That said a quick easy boy-lit read - men will likely enjoy it so it was OK.

[traci_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Obviously, the male version (and parody of) Eat Pray Love...pretty typical, no surprises, but entertaining in some parts. Quick read, that's for sure!

[oreillynsf_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A funny premise. And the writing is pretty good.

[slarsoncollins · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought this book was hysterical. No need to read Eat, Pray, Love to enjoy this book

[nerdyapple · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was a very quick read and was pretty funny. Funnier if you've read "Eat, Pray, Love."

[kendrarenee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

a nice spin-off of Elizabeth Gilbert's book: humorous and relatively well-written. I certainly appreciated it, because, while moderately liking Eat Pray Love, it struck me as a bit too snobbish for my tastes. Another book using a near-identical cover illustration and title to market itself, and then poke fun at it, is exactly the blow to her ego that Gilbert deserved. The other reviewers are right on another score: this story is a good read in and of itself, even if you've never read Gilbert's work and (bless you) never will. Even so, I don't think I'll keep it on my shelf, because (maybe a bit like it's evil twin) it just isn't that memorable.

[paperbackpirate · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If you read Eat, Pray, Love and didn't like it (like me and a few of my friends) then this book is your answer. Without spelling it out for the reader, the author presumes to be the ex-husband of the woman in EPL and tells you of his post-divorce adventure. It was more uplifting, funnier, and truer to life than that "other story" which is silly because EPL is non-fiction and DPF is fiction. I only wish I got to read it right after I finished EPL so I could have compared them closer.

[lenaphoenix · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

On the cover of Elizabeth Gilbert's mega-bestselling spiritual travel memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, the word eat is spelled out in pasta, the word play in prayer beads, and the word love in flower petals. On the cover of Andrew Gottlieb's parody send-up of that book, the word drink is spelled out in beer bottle caps, play in poker chips, and f@#k in condoms. When this suspiciously familiar cover caught my eye at B&N the other day, it immediately put a smile on my face. I liked Gilbert's book a lot, but not so much that I couldn't appreciate a well-done parody. And a well-done parody this is. Gottlieb's faux memoir is written from the perspective of a man who sounds a lot like an ex-Mr. Gilbert, one whose heart has been broken when his "neurotic, self-obsessed wife" of eight years leaves him and immediately begins shacking up with "some guy named David." To recover from this tragedy, he decides to take a year off to go drinking in Ireland, gambling in Vegas, and getting laid in Thailand. Given the title and the premise, I thought this book might be a much harsher, crueler attack on Gilbert's book than it actually is. While Gottlieb's character Bob Sullivan makes several pointed jabs at his ex-wife, much of the commentary and criticism on the famous book this one mirrors is woven into the story of Sullivan's journey in a surprisingly profound way. Because despite Bob's embracing of a rather unconventional path of "healing," he's actually a sensitive guy, not seeking the kind of oblivion the title might suggest but rather just trying to recover from a broken heart in the best way he knows how. So the book is actually a real story (albeit a rather fantastical one) with a real character, one that I developed a fair amount of affection for along the way. I found this book in the humor section. It is a funny book, though more in a smile-on-my-face kind of way than in a laugh-out-loud kind of way. Much of the humor for me came from seeing the places in which this story creatively diverged from the original. That's also where much of my admiration for this book came from, as it actually contains a surprising amount of wisdom within its goofy premise. I found his choice to mirror Gilbert's pursuit of spiritual transformation at an Indian guru's ashram with Bob's discovery of Nirvana in Vegas particularly inspired, and I thought it offered a great deal more in the way of practical spiritual philosophy than Gilbert's book does. So I would recommend this book, although I haven't the slightest idea as to whom. Those who loved Gilberts' book probably won't appreciate its interwoven criticisms. Those who hated it probably won't find it harsh enough, and those who never read it won't get much of the brilliance of its execution. So maybe if you had enough mixed feelings about EPL to give it 3 stars, this book is for you