Gotta Get Theroux This - Louise Theroux

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Do you want to read 200 pages about Louis Theroux's not-quite-friendship with Jimmy Savile? Because if you do, 'Gotta Get Theroux This' will be great for you. If you don't, the afterword of this book literally includes the words "Most of the criticisms [of this book] are to do with an overabundance of material about Jimmy Savile". The book itself is closer to 400 pages, and if you rip out everything about Jimmy Savile, you're left with only half a book to read.

At the start, I left myself a note describing the book as 'candid and uncomfortable, with no pomp or majesty'. The first section describes Louis succeeding at life and television despite himself - his borderline self-sabotage and generally blase' attitude towards his career. I thought I was in for a good read and a window into the Loius Theroux we don't see on screen. Instead I read a bit about Loius childhood (good), a recap of Weird Weekends (interesting) and then way too much about Louis' friend-not-friend Jimmy Savile, not a known pedophile at the start.

To be fair, for the first third of the book, it's quite engaging reading about young Louis Theroux and his early forays into reporting and television. The recaps of Weird Weekend were a nice touch that seemed to crack open a door into who Louis is off-screen, and what was going on around the edges of the documentaries. At the start it really felt like we were going to be welcomed in and the reader would be invited in to learn about the author, which is generally the promise of an autobigraphy.

The book then becomes painful and laborious at the introduction of Savile. First there is too much damn content about him (and he reads as the boorish racist uncle you really hope won't turn out to Christmas lunch) and then even once you think it's over, Savile keeps reappearing. First in phone calls, then in Louis' do-I-don't-I celebrity diary project, then finally with Louis berating himself for not uncovering Savile's crimes in the first place.

What promised to be a book about Louis Theroux was largely a book about Theroux and Savile. Even towards the latter half when Savile's crimes were revealed, 'Gotta Get Theroux This' could have been a look into a Louis struggle to come to terms with being friends with a sexual predator. Instead the reader  is held at arms length the entire time. At one point it even feels like we're going to see Louis perform some mental gymnastics to brush the whole thing off. While he eventually reaches the (correct) conclusion that Savile was a shameless predator, it somehow feels like the whole experience was hidden behind a thick glass screen. We can see it, but we aren't invited to hear, or feel the emotions of it. 

Reading an autobiography that barely invites the reader in, that barely exposes more than the existing public works of a person is a disappointing affair. Even now I struggle to recall what I read, but I can sum it up simply: a recap of Louis documentaries you've already seen with a (very shallow) glimpse below the surface, too much about Jimmy Savile, and telling myself everytime I picked it up "I gotta get through this damn book".

You can grab a copy on Amazon if you want, but you could also read anything else. Try some Cory Doctorow instead.