Role Models [Paperback]

Here, from the incomparable John Waters, is a paean to the power of subversive inspiration that will delight, amuse, enrichand happily horrifyreaders everywhere.

Role Modelsis, in fact, a self-portrait told through intimate profiles of favorite personalitiessome famous, some unknown, some criminal, some surprisingly middle of the road. From Esther Martin, owner of the scariest bar in Baltimore, to the playwright Tennessee Williams; from the atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair to the insane martyr Saint Catherine of Siena; from the English novelist Denton Welch to the timelessly appealing singer Johnny Mathisthese are the extreme figures who helped the author form his own brand of neurotic happiness.

Role Modelsis a personal invitation into one of the most unique, perverse, and hilarious artistic minds of our time.

Waters is a greater National Treasure than 90 percent of the people who are given Kennedy Center Honors' each December. Unlike those gray eminences of the show-business establishment, Waters doesn't kowtow to the received wisdom, he flips it the bird . . . [Waters] has the ability to show humanity at its most ridiculous and make that funny rather than repellent. To quote his linear ancestor W.C. Fields: It's a gift. Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post

His acolytes won't need a reviewer's say-so to lap up every word of Role Models, . . . But dilettantes at liberty to skip around will find a lot to charm them. In a way, the best joke is that  Baader-Meinhof gang, outsider porn and all--Waters can't help revealing one very page that he's both sentimental and good-hearted. Pass the relish, Uncle John. Tom Carson, New York Times Book Review

If Waters began his career by seeking to infuriate, he now has mellowed to a place of gleeful tweaking. Role Models' is charming and chatty . . . it also reveals the making of a unique American artist through his influencelsš