Tucker Max is an asshole – at least that is what he states in the opening lines of his first book, “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.”
Max is a writer known for his colorful language and berating women. Max’s book chronicles his life as a young man on an intoxicated quest for women. He wrote about his drunken nights and multiple hookups in his stories, which were published on his Web site www.tuckermax.com before he put them in print.
Max said he began the Web site at Duke law school, where he would e-mail stories about his nights out to his friends. One of his friends dared him to create a Web site.
“One of my friends bet me I wouldn’t start a site where women could fill out an application to date me,” Max said.
Max said he began to post his stories about his drunken nights on the Web site. The site quickly became more about the stories than about the application or the bet. It gained a slow national popularity with a collegiate audience through the stories, something that does not at all surprise Max.
“No, I’m not surprised [at the popularity]. I mean, have you read my shit?” Max said. “My shit’s fucking hilarious.”
The success was quick, but not as fast as Max said he would have liked.
“I’m an overnight success, but it took three years,” Max said.
In his stories, Max gets drunk, hooks up with random women and says and does things many find offensive. Max said there is a message in his stories, though there was not when he began.
“I’d be a liar if I said when I started it there was some grand message,” Max said.
Though by the time the book was created, he found one.
“I write about myself, totally honestly, the good and the bad,” Max said. “The way to be happy is be yourself – to live your life for you and not for other people.”
The stories are non-fiction, something Max said has happened organically. He compared looking for stories as opposed to just letting them happen to the expectations one has built up for a big night out.
“You know how New Year’s Eve is a shitty night out though it’s hyped up so much; it’s like a story,” Max said. “If you try to make a story, it turns into a New Year’s Eve. The best nights are the ones where your friends ask you over for a beer and it turns into 10 then 20, and you end up in Mexico with fucking strippers and elves.”
Max said his family has had differing opinions on his book.
“My mom just cries a lot and asks why I’m not a good person,” Max said.
Max said his father was anxious at first, but he started to warm to the idea when he saw how much money there was to be made for the book.
Max said he has another book coming out, titled “Assholes Finish First,” but he is not sure if he will continue to write.
“People grow and change and develop,” Max said. “Only fools and gods think they can predict the future, and I am neither.”
Max said he is continuously changing, as everyone does, and he does not know if he will have the same stories in a few years that he does now. But he said for the moment he is still enjoying bars and his favorite drink, a vodka club with lemon.
“[I drink] the drink of professionals – vodka club with lemon, not with lime,” Max said. “Tell the stupid fucking bartenders wherever you are that lemon goes with club and lime goes with tonic.”
 
 
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