Review: Cheers to Wendt's 'Drinking With George'

"Drinking With George" (Simon Spotlight, 240 pages, $24.99), by George Wendt

"Drinking With George" isn't an autobiography, memoir or tell-all. It has elements of all three, but in the end, it's about one thing: beer.

George Wendt's alter ego, the wisecracking "Cheers" barfly Norm Peterson, might be TV's all-time top beer devotee, and based on this book, Wendt isn't far behind.

The 61-year-old actor takes readers through his lifelong love affair with the stuff -- he had his first taste as an 8-year-old and got drunk at 16 -- and has more than a few tales to tell.

Wendt comes across as the ultimate bar buddy. He's self-deprecating, an engaging storyteller and, well, thirsty.

Wendt has cracked open more than a few cold ones over the years.

There's Wendt fetching beers for his grandpa when he was a boy; roaming the streets of his hometown of Chicago as a teenager looking for a bar that would serve him and his pals; drinking and flunking his way out of Notre Dame; hitting the bars after performances with Chicago's famed Second City comedy troupe; and of course, sitting on a barstool for more than a decade at the place where everybody knows your name.

The book is a lot more than a series of one-liners and beer puns. Wendt sprinkles in tongue-in-cheek helpful hints (how to survive a bar fight and beat a hangover) and facts about his favorite beverage.

He also doesn't shy away from discussing the dangers of alcohol consumption, including how he drove drunk through a row of lampposts in the 1970s and was arrested.

But Wendt never gets too serious in "Drinking With George," a funny, surprisingly informative read that goes down smoothly with no bad aftertaste.

-- AP