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Dangerous When Wet
From the age of five, all Brickhouse wanted was to be at a party with a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other and all Mama Jean wanted was to keep him at that age, her Jamie doll forever. A Texan Elizabeth Taylor with the split personality of Auntie Mame and Mama Rose, always camera-ready and flamboyantly outspoken, Mama Jean haunted him his whole life, no matter how far away he went or how deep in booze he swam. Brickhouse's journey takes him from Texas to a high-profile career in book publishing amid New York's glamorous drinking life to his near-fatal descent into alcoholism. After Mama Jean ushers him into rehab and he ultimately begins to dig his way out of the hole he'd found himself in, he almost misses his chance to prove that he loves her as much as she loves him. Bitingly funny, raw, and insightful, DANGEROUS WHEN WET is the unforgettable story of a unique relationship between a son and his mother.
About the Jamie Brickhouse
Jamie Brickhouse has written for The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, Lambda Literary Review, Publishers Weekly, Shelf Awareness, and The Fix, and guest blogs for the Huffington Post. He spent over two decades in the publishing industry, most recently at two major houses as head of their publicity and lecture divisions. He has performed stand-up comedy and recorded voice-overs for the legendary TV show Beavis and Butthead. A native of Beaumont, Texas, Brickhouse lives in Manhattan with his partner, Michael.
Jamie Brickhouse & Dangerous When Wet are Soaked in Praise
"Must read… Brickhouse's blunt account of addiction and recovery is laced with twisted humor, a testament to the long shadow his mama cast over his life. That same shadow will be following you around days after you finish this book."
—Out magazine
"Jamie Brickhouse plunges into his dark days of boozing in Dangerous When Wet."
—Vanity Fair, Hot Type
"As a blackout drinker and a ‘serial fornicator,' Jamie Brickhouse was guided by two interrogative mantras: ‘Sure. Why not?' and, courtesy of singer Peggy Lee, ‘Is that all there is?' But Dangerous When Wet is far more than a witty chronicle of gin-soaked debauchery. It is, more importantly, a poignant, hilarious, and sharply observed story of a gay man's exchange of self-destruction and self-loathing for a quest for wisdom and a mature understanding of love. Move over, Augusten Burroughs. You've got company."
—Wally Lamb, author of She's Come Undone, I Know This Much is True, and We are Water
"Everyone's got a mother, but Jamie Brickhouse was lucky enough to have a Mama Jean, a boisterous, loving and bouffant Texas tornado. In Dangerous When Wet, Jamie's delicious and touching memoir, we find out precisely how Jamie became the sort of guy to purchase, at auction, ‘a six-and-a-half-foot long, chestnut brown, ranch mink scarf,' which had once belonged to Joan Crawford. Under Mama Jean's tutelage, Jamie also came to appreciate the joys, and dangers, of a champagne cocktail. In exploring family uproar, the Holly Golightly allure of Manhattan, and the free fall of alcoholism, Jamie creates a literary cocktail all his own: witty, blisteringly honest and wickedly intoxicating."
—Paul Rudnick, playwright, author & New Yorker columnist
"Unabashedly campy but always candid."
—Kirkus Reviews
"It's hard to do justice to Brickhouse's dance-, song-, and celebrity-filled prose, escapades, good-natured storytelling, and unflagging hope. A funny, sad, and fine first book by a contributor to the New York Times and the Huffington Post, among others."
—Booklist
"Dangerous When Wet is anchored by a character destined to become iconic: Mama Jean. The outrageously bold and bawdy Mama Jean teaches more about life in a single one-liner than a shelf full of self-help books. Brickhouse's memoir is as revealing as it is riotous...a dark journey studded with gems of hilarity."
—Josh Kilmer-Purcell, author of I'm Not Myself These Days & co-star The Fabulous Beekman Boys
"Jamie Brickhouse has seen the darkness, and emerged a happier, stronger person. His book is sensitive and thoughtful, tinged with hilarity and heartbreak, and as bubbly as a champagne flute of Asti Spumante. Drink it."
—Henry Alford, Humorist, author of Would It Kill You to Stop Doing That? and New York Times columnist
"Dangerous When Wet is one wild-ass ride filled with lurid sex, drunken treks, late night phone calls to the rich and famous, and secret upon secret that no one has any business revealing. Jamie Brickhouse serves up a riotous, rollicking memoir that, ultimately, is as sweet as it is outrageous."
—Neil White, author of In the Sanctuary of Outcasts
"Jamie Brickhouse's flame-red hair may have faded, but his no-holds-barred account of his fairy-tale life gone bad sets the pages of Dangerous When Wet on fire. Taking the reader on an alcohol, drug, and sex-fueled roller-coaster ride through the 1990s and early twenty-first-century New York City, Jamie spares us – and himself – nothing. Yet despite how much we might want to shake him into consciousness over the wreckage he leaves along the way, when he finally hits bottom after a suicide attempt, we wind up cheering him on as he struggles to find himself, sobriety, and redemption."
—Eric Marcus, author of Why Suicide? Questions and Answers About Suicide, Suicide Prevention, and Coping with the Suicide of Someone You Know
"...Dangerous When Wet never feels like an Augusten Burroughs knockoff because the central characters — Brickhouse's grande dame of a mother, Mama Jean, and Brickhouse himself — are such true originals. . . Brickhouse has written a chronicle of his often tumultuous but deeply loving relationship with his mother that's as multifaceted as Mama Jean herself. Like her, it's glamorously tragic and howlingly funny in equal measure."
— Entertainment Weekly A-
"Mama Jean takes center stage in Brickhouse's colorful memoir. . . There's never a shortage of drama — or humor — as Brickhouse chronicles his early years running behind his mother's (high) heels, his wild days in Manhattan and his struggle with addiction. But in the end, this raucous memoir is a testament to his
mother. . ."
—Washington Post
