A Toronto bookseller's collection of literary excerpts about hangovers is proving to be a surprising hit. Peter Sellers, owner of Sellers and Newel, compiled the book after years of noticing the abundance of hangover descriptions in various works. The book explores the humorous and sometimes bleak experiences of writers grappling with the dreaded after-effects of too much partying, dating back centuries.
A heavy head, a twisted gut, the keen sense of regret – a hangover is generally understood as the opposite of a good time. But even in its utter not-funness there can be something undeniably funny about the condition, especially in the hands of an excellent writer., featuring many centuries worth of excerpted scenes and quips regarding the proverbial dog that bites you. The excerpts were compiled by Peter Sellers, the cheeky proprietor of the excellent used- and rare-book shop Sellers and Newel.
Definitely. Particularly when you were talking about the older stuff – this applies obviously to the mid-century male writers – there’s definitely a macho thing to it. When I was in the ad business in the 1980s, I knew guys who’d wake up on the boardroom floor, get up, wash their faces and go into their offices and go back to work. The attitudes have changed so radically now.in the early 1980s. I was noticing these descriptions of hangovers in the books I was reading.
I just had a notion it might sell, and I thought it was fun. After a while it did become exactly what you’re talking about, just something I had in a box. Until last year, when I happened to mention it to Howard Aster, the publisher at Mosaic Press. Next thing I know, he’s off at the book fair in Frankfurt, talking it up to people.
No, I think anybody who gets a lot of hangovers is not really particularly wise in that regard. I started in the ad business in 1980 and we were drinking all the time. You’d go for lunch, you’d have five drinks and you’d go back to work and think you were being productive. In my mid-30s, I just quit. For about 12 years. Then I went to England and couldn’t see myself ordering club soda in the pub. So I ordered a drink and drank for another 10 years. But I stopped again, about nine years ago now.
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