Short Synopsis
Here, from the incomparable John Waters, is a paean to the power of subversive inspiration that will delight, amuse, enrich—and happily horrify listeners everywhere.

Full Synopsis
Role Models is filmmaker John Waters's self-portrait told through intimate profiles of favorite personalities—some famous, some unknown, some criminal, some surprisingly middle-of-the-road. From Esther Martin, owner of the scariest bar in Baltimore, to the American 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 Mathis—these are the extreme figures who helped the author form his own brand of neurotic happiness.

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

"The essays in Role Models meander pleasantly around personalities, recollections and ideas, always finding glory in the flaws.... Within [Waters'] jokes and winks and countercultural jabs, he is striving for real human emotion." ---Los Angeles Times

"[Waters is] an eloquent writer who can turn a witty phrase almost as deftly as one of the book's subjects, Tennessee Williams, and

do so with convincing style. This goes for his narration as well. Waters comes off as insightful—if not excessively camp—but his flamboyance is infectious." ---AudioFile

"Waters himself narrates, in a fast-paced, conversational tone.... He is never boring and often hilarious." ---Library Journal Audio Review

"Some of the best material in Role Models is devoted to…the sort of disarmingly unfiltered confessions that capture Waters' singular blend of weirdness and guileless honestly." ---San Francisco Chronicle

"The best joke in the book is that...Waters can't help revealing on every other page that he's both sentimental and good-hearted." ---The New York Times

"[Waters] has the ability to show humanity at its most ridiculous and make that funny rather than repellent." ---The Washington Post

"[John Waters] is frank, funny, and (strangely enough) both sensible and outrageous." ---Edmund White, author of City Boy

"With these lively, generous essays, Waters comes across as not just hilarious and perverse but also surprisingly sensible like an infinitely weirder David Sedaris." ---The Boston Globe

"Waters' warped imagination is always humane, his judgments insightful. Role Models is as much a philosophical manifesto as it is an utterly hilarious and shamelessly entertaining read." ---Philip Hoare, author of The Whale

"Waters delivers a worthy tribute to his personal pantheon of artistic icons. An impressive, heartfelt collection by a true American iconoclast." ---Kirkus Starred Review

New York Times Bestseller

Kirkus Review

Audie Finalist