In the mildly entertaining memoir Cad: Confessions of a Toxic Bachelor, former New York Times reporter and pop-culture critic Rick Marin chronicles the years of marathon dating and shallow living that followed in the wake of his failed "starter marriage." Marin moves through a series of urbane exploits and short-lived affairs, perfecting his trademark move of whipping off his horn-rims midconversation in a "myopic gaze," holding court with his wingman Tad over the hot buffet at Billy's Topless, and regurgitating wisdom gleaned from The Godfather. Like the similarly self-indulgent How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, Cad has its memorable moments--Marin comparing his wedding video to the Zapruder film and hitting on actress Moira Kelly when she was still an ingénue living with her mom on Long Island--but the book's swinging, ring-a-ding-ding Rat Pack attitude feels noticeably forced and uninspired, leaving a flat aftertaste to the whole affair. --Brad Thomas Parsons


From Publishers Weekly
In this withering account of one man's travels in dateland, journalist Marin visits an insane asylum, spends a year as a gourmand yuppie, woos a recent college graduate with Pop-Tarts and comes on to a teenage celebrity. And those are his tamer anecdotes. Marin, who starts his tear in the early 1990s after separating from his wife, also pursues a writing career that has him interviewing B-list celebrities like Vanilla Ice. As he cruises through his 20- and 30-something years (and most of the single women) in New York, Marin tells an episodic tale that's more than the sum of its hilarious parts-he also evokes a male psyche that's pulsating with provocative nuggets. (On honesty: "Women blame men for acting fake.... But women are the ones speeding from zero to intimacy like a Ferrari. Which is more artificial?") In the hands of a lesser writer, the book could have been merely a self-indulgent series of diary entries. But Marin's comic timing, insight and self-deprecation vault it to something greater. Marin has achieved the most elusive of literature's paradoxes: a deep and complicated exploration of the superficial. Men and women should be equally enthralled by the portrait of someone torn between finding the right woman and finding the right-now woman. That there's a happy-but not Nutrasweet-ending only reinforces the image of a real person in all his messy and comic humanity. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Steve Martin, Author of Shopgirl
"I've been there."


Candace Bushnell, Author of Four Blondes
"The shocking truth about what some men really think about women. Read it if you dare."


Karen Duffy, Author of Model Patient
"99 per cent of men give all the rest a bad name. Thanks to Cad, women now . . . know the difference."


Bruce Jay Friedman, Author of The Lonely Guy
"Very funny, often desperately funny, and as sure-footed about the Manhattan dating/mating scene as anything I've read."


Andy Borowitz, The Borowitz Report
"Hilarious and surprisingly heartfelt, this is a book every woman should read . . ."


Lucinda Rosenfeld, What She Saw...
"An outrageous work of chauvinism."


The Wall Street Journal
"Witty and surprisingly insightful"


Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"An irresistible book."


Book Description
You know him. He's the funny, sweet guy with the great eyes who asks you a million questions and seems mesmerized by every reply. He takes you on the greatest, longest date of your life. He swears he loves cats and cuddling. And his apartment is so clean. He just might be the One. Then he doesn't call, doesn't write. He sees you coming down the street and he hides behind a tree. He's a cad. And this is his story. After all the girl's guides to sex in the city, here -- at last -- is the view from the other side of the bed. In Cad: Confessions of Toxic Bachelor, Rick Marin offers himself up for an in-depth look at man's superficial nature. At 28, a brief, doomed first marriage thrusts him back into Bachelor Hell. A journalist as eager to make it in Manhattan as with its female population, our emotionally myopic hero can never seem to tell if the woman in front of him is too crazy or too sane, until she gets too close. Falling out of love as often as he falls in, he vows more than once to clean up his act, only to relapse into another bender of beauties, blow-offs and bad behavior -- all in desperate pursuit of the woman who can redeem him. In this rollicking, frequently insensitive and ultimately poignant memoir, Marin proves a master of the light touch even in his darkest hours. Part Hugh Hefner, part Hugh Grant, his tale is a rake's progress (in spite of himself) from incorrigible cad to reconstructed romantic. It is one man's story, but many men will read it as their own. And for any woman who has ever wondered, "What was he thinking?" This is what he was thinking.


About the Author
Rick Marin has been a reporter at the New York Times Sunday Styles section, a senior writer at Newsweek and secretly wrote an advice column on men for a major women's magazine. He lives in New York and Sag Harbor.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Los Angeles Times bestseller, now in paperback-tales of the notorious New York dating scene, told from the other side of the bed.

Rick Marin offers himself up for an in-depth look at man's superficial nature. At 28, a brief, doomed first marriage thrusts Marin back into Bachelor Hell. A journalist as eager to make it in Manhattan as with its female population, our emotionally myopic hero can never seem to tell if the woman in front of him is too crazy or too sane, until she gets too close. Falling out of love as often as he falls in, he vows more than once to clean up his act, only to relapse into another bender of beauties, blow-offs, and bad behavior-all in desperate pursuit of the woman who can redeem him.

In this rollicking, frequently insensitive and ultimately poignant memoir, Marin proves a master of the light touch even in his darkest hours. It is one man's story, but many men will read it as their own. And for any woman who has ever wondered, "What was he thinking?" This is what he was thinking.

Rick Marin has been a reporter for the New York Times Sunday Styles section, a senior writer at Newsweek, and secretly wrote an advice column on men for a major women's magazine. He lives in New York City and Sag Harbor.

FROM THE CRITICS

Book Magazine - Kevin Greenberg

This memoir of the early 1990s recounts the author's transformation from disgruntled divorcee to swaggering bachelor. Marin, a regular contributor to the New York Times Styles section, humorously describes the uncertain years he spent polishing pickup lines and sleeping with as many single women as would have him. Marin's witty reflections on his younger self serve as a cautionary tale for any young man about town who's ever tried to convince himself that being single is fun.

Publishers Weekly

In this withering account of one man's travels in dateland, journalist Marin visits an insane asylum, spends a year as a gourmand yuppie, woos a recent college graduate with Pop-Tarts and comes on to a teenage celebrity. And those are his tamer anecdotes. Marin, who starts his tear in the early 1990s after separating from his wife, also pursues a writing career that has him interviewing B-list celebrities like Vanilla Ice. As he cruises through his 20- and 30-something years (and most of the single women) in New York, Marin tells an episodic tale that's more than the sum of its hilarious parts-he also evokes a male psyche that's pulsating with provocative nuggets. (On honesty: "Women blame men for acting fake.... But women are the ones speeding from zero to intimacy like a Ferrari. Which is more artificial?") In the hands of a lesser writer, the book could have been merely a self-indulgent series of diary entries. But Marin's comic timing, insight and self-deprecation vault it to something greater. Marin has achieved the most elusive of literature's paradoxes: a deep and complicated exploration of the superficial. Men and women should be equally enthralled by the portrait of someone torn between finding the right woman and finding the right-now woman. That there's a happy-but not Nutrasweet-ending only reinforces the image of a real person in all his messy and comic humanity. (Feb. 14) Forecast: Are readers itching for a Sex in the City for guys? Hyperion hopes so; it plans Valentine's Day promos and will probably get major review coverage in both men's and women's magazines. Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews