B-Side of Paradise

A laugh-out-loud college memoir with eccentric Ivy Leaguers, lousy sex, an appropriate amount of drugs, and lots of rock-and-roll.

They'll be clutching pearls in Nassau Hall over The B-Side of Paradise-a coming-of-age romp through Princeton University in the 1970s. Our hero: a spirited first-gen crashing and burning the Ivy League like Holden Caulfield reborn. Then sticking the landing on three "Major University Awards," and a bid to the aristocratic Ivy Club.

The B-Side of Paradise is more than a nostalgia trip for Baby Boomers; it's a College Handbook for Cool Kids that dishes dirt on the Ivies you won't hear anywhere else. With savvy tips on surviving college life like: DON'T KIDNAP ANYBODY; If you get a chance to kiss the princess-KISS THE PRINCESS; And there's a valuable lesson in The Night We Outed Fascists Until Dawn--if you can find it.

An homage to Jean Shepard, Hunter S. Thompson and Dave Barry, The B-Side is the Truth or Dare of college lit, with un-Ivy League thoughts on success and friendship you won't find in F. Scott Fitzgerald's big-shot debut novel This Side of Paradise.

After sullying the good names of Princeton, NYU's Stern School of Business, and Columbia Film School, and inking three ill-conceived screenplays, Alfred D'Alessandro enjoyed a mercurial magazine career at Fairchild, McGraw Hill, Crain Communications, and the iconic What To Do: Armonk, Bedford & Chappaqua.