The Daily Gamecock

Issue date: 11/16/07 Section: The Mix

Falling under the category of Humor/Popular Culture, Dan Dunn's clever quips and drollery in his novel follow the mistakes, knowledge, experience and tribulations that come with being professionally drunk for a living.

Dunn, a notorious wine and spirits writer and columnist of "The Imbiber," chronicles his witty comedy in his book "Nobody Likes a Quitter (And Other Reasons to Avoid Rehab): The Loaded Life of an Outlaw Booze Writer."

The text follows Dunn's collection of adventures across the globe on his journeys of writing about what to drink, drinking it and what happens when you drink it for multiple publications. His articles have gotten him recognition and positions writing for E's "Talk Soup" and as a Weekend Update contributor for NBC's "Saturday Night Live."

Dunn's ways didn't start at the top, however. Living alternately on a floor and couch in Aspen, Colorado, Dunn discovered his love for booze and his ability to transform his sarcastic dribble into written words. He later moved to Santa Monica to continue his aspiration and profession in a more urban and less tourist setting.

Not only does the novel follow Dunn's many, many experiences, but also it includes his favorite drink recipes and numerous footnotes full of interesting side, yet knowledgeable, information.

While normally a footnote would cause one to glaze over and continue reading the main text on the page, Dunn's ability to tie together the strangest of events and mindless factoids makes it hard to fight the urge of not making one's way to the bottom of the page during mid-sentence.

Dunn also has a knack for interpreting situations and adding multiple analogies, which most of the time, stifle at least a chuckle. They do, however, get to be a bit too far-fetched at points, making some of them more annoying than anything else.

A deifier of the norm in any and all situations, Dunn's adventures (most of which leave the reader thinking "I can't believe he actually did that"), are amusing, truly incorporating hoards of people, places and coincidental occurrences. If one can make their way through the footnotes, spirit concoctions and histories without getting too far off track, Dunn does in fact tie everything together quite well; the reader just needs to really pay attention to the story line, then go back to the side notes, a practice that can cause one to feel a little overwhelmed with information at points.

The novel is a quick read, however. The story moves along at a fast pace-there is never an incident that the reader would find uneventful.

Continued...

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