ELECTROBOY: A MEMOIR OF MANIA by Andy Behrman will be published on February 19, 2002 by Random House.
We were privileged to publish Andy's article, "Electroboy," (see sidebar) in 2001. Next week we will be even more privileged to publish not only our review of this book, but a pre-publication excerpt. This week Andy has provided us with this glimpse inside the story:
Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania is about desperately seeking to live life at a more passionate level, taking second and sometimes third helpings on food, alcohol, drugs, sex and money, trying to live a whole life in one day. Pure mania is as close to death as I think I have ever come. The euphoria is both pleasurable and frightening ... parties, people, magazines, books, art, movies, and television. In my most psychotic stages, I imagine myself chewing on sidewalks and buildings and swallowing sunlight and clouds.
Andy Behrman is Superman. He fuels a high-octane existence with whatever comes his way - cocaine, sex, money. He keeps cash in the freezer - "mad money" - for spontaneous gifts to strangers, payment for prostitutes and other essentials. Mostly he sleeps thee hours a night but can go for days without any.
Life is never fast enough. From sex lines to fraud on a massive scale, Behrman do anything to keep the high going. One minute he is a public relations genius, the next a convicted art fraudster. Sometimes he is a faithful loving partner and then the compulsive thrill seeker. For a while he was a stripper. Then he was a million-dollar art dealer.
Behrman has to keep it all moving with a cocktail of Prozac, Advil, cocaine, vodka and Amstel Lites. There's no stopping him until a five-month prison sentence curbs his freedom and electroshock therapy takes its toll. Andy Behrman's story is extraordinary, but it's all true.
ELECTROBOY is Andy's chronicle of his battle with manic depression or bipolar disorder - - the euphoric highs and desperate lows. He was misdiagnosed by more than eight doctors and even when finally diagnosed with this chronic illness, he was unsuccessful on any regimen of medication. With no hope of his condition stabilizing, he turned to the last resort: electroshock therapy, also known as electroconvulsive therapy and commonly known as ECT.
Andy Behrman, 39 years old and a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, is a former fashion publicist, go go boy, escort, hustler and art dealer. Convicted in 1993 of conspiracy to defraud, for counterfeiting the works of Mark Kostabi (an artist who pays people to paint his paintings), Behrman served five months in a minimum-security correctional facility and five months of house arrest. In 1995, Andy Behrman was admitted to the hospital for electroshock therapy. He had 19 treatments altogether. Andy Behrman currently lives mania-free on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and has published a number of articles in The New York Times. He still misses his ECT.
ELECTROBOY is Andy Behrman's first book. Visit his website at http://www.electroboy.com.
Pre-publication reviews for ELECTROBOY have been outstanding:
"Andy Behrman was the poster boy for '80's excess. His Downey-esque behavior was the result of a chemical imbalance. ELECTROBOY is worth plugging into for an entertaining 'glad I'm not that guy' jolt." - - Maxim Magazine
"The compulsive readable ELECTROBOY, by manic-depressive Andy Behrman, is the genre's version of an action-thriller. Fueled by euphoria, drugs and ready cash, Behrman's story is way more entertaining than an inside look at a serious psychiatric disorder should rightly be. You can almost hear the frantic, thunderous scrape of his pen as he devours experiences so voraciously." - - "W"
"Put sex, drugs, art forgeries and manic depression into a blender, run it at top speed for 10 minutes, and out pops ELECTROBOY, Andy Behrman's high-octane autobiography." - - Amazon.com
