Happy Hour Is for Amateurs: A Lost Decade in the World's Worst Profession | 
| Author: Philadelphia Lawyer
Publisher: William Morrow
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $13.97
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Rating:  51 reviews
Sales Rank: 13692
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 5.5 x 1
ISBN: 0061349496
Dewey Decimal Number: 340.0207
EAN: 9780061349492
ASIN: 0061349496
Publication Date: October 1, 2008
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Condition: BRAND NEW
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Product Description
For some people, happy hour is never enough This is a book about escape. It's also about laughing gas. And bourbon and dope and sex and mushrooms and every other vice millions of us indulge in to forget our jobs, the office, and the stifling, corporate caricatures we're forced to become for paychecks. This is a book about a decade lost in a senseless career no one likes and all the ridiculous things I did to run from it. In the end, it's probably your story as much as mine. We're everywhere. We just can't say it out loud.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 46 more reviews...
 Entertaining, Accurate, and Insightful October 3, 2008
Charles B. Fehr (Houston, TX)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful
Half-memoir, half-gonzo, Happy Hour Is For Amateurs is greater than the sum of its autobiographical parts. Ultimately, the book is a morality play; the deadly sins are sacrificing happiness for a paycheck and perpetuating the status quo in a morally bankrupt industry.
Some readers may object to the author's profanity and depiction of drug and alcohol use--of course, some readers call Mark Twain "racist" and Aldous Huxley "immoral." In other words, if you have a weak constitution or delicate sensibilities, this book probably isn't for you.
This book is for: (1) every worker who's ever felt like a cog or an itinerant, (2) every person who thinks, "this is as good as it gets for me," and (3) anyone who enjoys funny, insightful writing on topics most people can relate to. From the book: "There's an accidental wisdom in following. Letting something else define you narrows the decisions you have to make. It gives you parameters, a track to follow and a holiday from all the angst that comes with carving your own path." `Following' is exactly what some people need--this book is for everyone else.
Happy Hour Is For Amateurs is not a book about being a lawyer, it's a book about being unsatisfied with what you do. (Though it's completely, depressingly accurate if you want to know what the actual practice of law is like for the majority of attorneys.) It's about settling and the push-pull of childhood dreams--and adult dreams--against the weight of responsibility and expectations. Philalawyer escaped, and most of us haven't, a fact sure to generate equal measures of envy and hostility. Either way, this book is compulsory reading for every disaffected office monkey, every fungible bureaucrat.
The writing is always serviceable and frequently soars. Some readers may quibble with the non-linear style--but this isn't a novel, and each chapter contributes something important on the way to understanding the overall ethic of the author. The momentum slows very occasionally, but the humor underlying each vignette is more than enough to
excuse the occasional digression.
Lawyers, in particular, will nod their heads in agreement or sympathy throughout Philalawyer's book. Equity partners in big law firms might not get it, and associates on the same track will probably ignore it. The rest of us will say, "Thank you," and buy him a drink.
Truth, Whole Truth, And Nothing But July 25, 2008
Daydream Believer (Austin, TX)
17 out of 24 found this review helpful
I didn't write this review the second I finished the book. It took me a few days to sort out my thoughts. See I know this guy. I mean, I don't actually know the author, but I grew up in the "Alabama" part of Pennsylvania he refers to, so I know every city he writes about well enough to know when he's dead-on accurate. (For those of you who read the book and don't get the reference-- on a campaign tour James Carville once described Pennsylvania as "Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between." The reality is more complex than that, but as stereotypes go, it generally fits.)
I watched several friends' personalities evolve or devolve, depending on your opinion, as they went through law school and then practiced trial law in Pennsylvania. I'm not familiar with this author's blog, but the title of the book alone was enough to make me get it. I wanted to see if someone out there knew what life in the law, and the people who practice it, are really like. There isn't a false ring to any description the author provides: he is, as they say, telling it like it is.
The book opens with a brilliant first chapter. Film director Alfred Hitchcock once said his goal was to put the audience in the mindset of the characters: when a character was lost and wandering (as in "Vertigo") you were forced to wander at his slow pace as well. The Philadelphia Lawyer has done this beautifully in his first chapter. You're up, you're down, you're on a roller coaster of a treasure hunt, you're in a state of panic, you're resolute and then desolate. You don't know what's been lost, but it's seriously bad. As in it might ruin your career. Or be the final straw for a friendship- or at least a roommate. It might be...
Sorry folks- I won't reveal the secret. It's that good. Because this lost "treasure" is the perfect metaphor for the practice of law. The panic and the pressure and the whipped-up frenzy for something which turns out to be... well you'll find out.
The main character is not always likable. In fact, he often fits the stereotype of the narcissistic attorney or, in layman's terms, a self-centered arrogant jerk. He mentions Atticus Finch (scratch any attorney and the image of Atticus Finch appears), but it's only in reference to the suit he's wearing. The author makes no attempt to make himself a hero or a champion for anything other than himself. It's sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll lawyer-style. Most women are throwaway objects, described in extremely unflattering physical terms, their sexual preferences laid out in gross detail. After all, as the author says, f***ing is just f***ing. Mickey Spillane would be proud. But, hey, it's not chick lit, so don't come here looking for it.
You could argue that it's a moral tale of sorts, one of redemption through writing. This lawyer does have a soul and the book makes you wonder if the practice of law actually helped him find it. It's a good story and he's a great storyteller. I can understand why the lawyers who read his blog want to buy him a drink. His story is the reason there are counselors and psychologists with practices devoted almost exclusively to lawyers.
Read it if you're at all interested in the realities of trial law and lawyers. It should probably be required reading for any college student considering law school. Men will either like this guy or not and the decision will be made. Women can be forewarned: get ready because this is reality.
And perhaps that's what is most amazing about this book: a lawyer telling the truth.
It's Complicated... July 30, 2008
Martin P. McCarthy (North Chili, New York)
16 out of 22 found this review helpful
I was pretty sure I was going to hate this book. Afterall, how can being a lawyer be the "worst" profession, especially when its protagonist, The Philadelphia Lawyer, was making $250,000 a year? A review of the back cover promises a raucous, hedonistic and (quite possibly) pointless trip. In short, after reading the back cover, I was prepared for a blunt, unsophisticated trash session.
Lesson #1 - you can't always judge a book by its back cover. For one, The Philadelphia Lawyer's ("LAWYER") analysis of the practice of law is much more nuanced than what the back cover promised. LAWYER's rendition of law school was perfect, right down to the 10% rule and the presence of "gunners" in every law school class.
Calling the "law" the "worst profession" is a bit simplistic. However, after reading LAWYER's argument, the subtitle is actually the most economical formulation of his thesis. How else can you qualify the profession which, according to LAWYER takes much more from its practitioner than it rewards him with? How else can you qualify the profession in which the ideals of the profession are so divorced from its actual practice? How else do you can a profession the least fulfilling out there? How else do you explain that lawyers sport twice the national average percentage for alcohol and drug abuse?
If he feels so strongly about the profession, then why use the pseudonym of the Philadelphia Lawyer? He explains that his use of a pseudonym protects the innocent and the guilty (the The Dragnet Collection, Vol. 1 proviso). A cynic (LAWYER writes with a cynic's viewpoint) would say that by using a pseudonym, LAWYER is hedging his bets: if this whole writing thing doesn't work out, he could at least go back to being a lawyer. Ultimately though, I think the decision to use a pseudonym was his conscious decision to elevate the Message over the Messenger.
 Life as a Philadelphia Lawyer Reveals Too Much July 24, 2008
Pistol Pete (Houston, TX United States)
15 out of 36 found this review helpful
As a former lawyer myself, I was interested to see what Philadelphia Lawyer had to say about his 10 years as a lawyer. I anticipated and enjoyed many of the complaints: the long hours, inefficient practices, anal personalities, etc. I also enjoyed many of his stories, including his numerous job changes (within law), trials and office politics - these were very amusing and revealing.
However, to get to the gems, you have to slog through so many pages of his misadventures as to make the trip not worth it. If you enjoy National Inquirer and/or stories about booze, women, drugs, sex and bathroom exploits, then you will enjoy Philadelphia Lawyer's many sidebars. Wild weekends with women and drugs appear to be his coping mechanism for being a lawyer. For me, I did not enjoy them, but that is just me.
Also, the writing style is more stream of consciousness (complete with lots of explicatives) than anything else. This format works well for blogs (on which this book is based), but over the course of a 300-page book it gets old.
There were some enjoyable parts, but I guess I didn't take the title seriously enough. Happy Hour is really the least of Philadelphia Lawyer's problems and exploits. Overall, I found too many distasteful elements to really enjoy it.
I'm not a lawyer from Philadelphia, but I can sure as hell relate. October 3, 2008
Christopher Griffin (AB Canada)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
The introductory author's note concludes with Sergeant Hulka's memorable line from Stripes "Lighten up, Francis" and it sets the tone for what's to come. Occasionally, pre-release examination copies will cross my desk, but this was the first book to inspire me to jump on Amazon and write a review.
Happy Hour is for Amateurs is not for everyone. If you're easily offended, you might do better to avoid the book. More importantly, if you rely on cognitive dissonance to get through 9-5 life, then the book might shake your fragile mental farce a little too violently.
Philadelphia Lawyer tells the story of a young man fresh out of college who is beaten down over the course of a decade in the legal profession. The lines between work and play, misery and happiness are often blurred, and each chapter is a slightly different take following an overarching theme of discontent leading to self-actualization. Perhaps the author's greatest strength is his ability to maintain a fast-paced, page-turning plot while interspersing insightful anecdotes that put into words all the random thoughts I've had about corporate culture, leaving me wondering "why the hell didn't I write this?" Yet, at the same time, I realize that it takes great craft to make life's mundanity compelling.
Philadelphia Lawyer writes like a man who isn't afraid to write. So often writers are concerned with what others might think; what literary conventions or technicalities to abide by in order to appeal to a certain crowd, but in this book the language comes relentless and unrestrained. Pop culture references from the last half century blend seamlessly with serious deliberations on legal culture and its implications on sanity. Finally, somebody is writing in an honest way about the world the forty and under population grew up in.
Immersed in a mass of workaholic drones all too eager to bill their way to the top, the narrator turns to mind-altering substances to cope with his sad reality. His sexual exploits left me laughing and cringing all at once, but the trick is Philadelphia Lawyer tells the story like you're in on the joke. One doesn't have to identify exactly with his debauchery, but instead with the potential of that act's occurrence. That maybe, if the stars had aligned differently, it might have been me running from the cops in a blizzard - merely entertaining the thought reminds us that the world isn't as serious as everyone seems to make it out to be.
Our egos are padded from childhood to make us believe there is a greater purpose behind all our actions. Despite what we're led to believe sometimes life really is a ridiculous charade - the only purpose being that there is none. Everybody has to earn a paycheck, and the need for food and shelter is a real one. Somehow in our drive to provide, we start taking everything serious. We forget how to take a joke and laugh at ourselves. Philadelphia Lawyer reminds us that enjoying the ride is more important than the end goal.
The sad truth is that without the humor, the subject would be an unbearable read. Hardly a page goes by without negative adjectives such as "rotten" "awful" "terrible" or "atrocious." As someone unaccustomed to the legal climate, the daily drudgery experienced within the plot really begin to wear. Just when I think "this can't possible get any worse" it does. I imagine lawyers may find themselves offended, but if so, they are missing the point. Philadelphia Lawyer does not blame the players, he blames a corrupt and immoral game. Nonetheless the players - whether a thirty year old gunner looking for the next promotion or a twenty-something drug dealer looking to latch on to anything - are held responsible for their own existence.
Among all the vulgarity and belligerence there is a very real message communicated. That message will resonate differently with everyone, but "do what you love and love what you do" sums it up nicely for me. Unfortunately it takes the legal profession, a concentrated embodiment of every occupational evil, to demonstrate what we're all failing to see. The end goal of life isn't to die.
For a first effort, it's no wonder Philadelphia Lawyer is already making waves in the legal and publishing community. A fresh voice that has emerged from a thankless, empty lifestyle with something to offer all of us. Happy Hour is for Amateurs is a book I recommend to anyone that's ever sat in a pub and complained about their day.
And Francis, before you get all worked up and self-righteous, remember: if you can't laugh at yourself, then everyone else will do it for you.
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