240 pages
English language
Published Oct. 6, 2010 by Harper.
Comedian Silverman's memoir that mixes showbiz moments with the more serious subject of her teenage bout with depression as well as stories of her childhood and adolescence.
I listened to this as an audiobook. This book is mostly just a stream of thoughts and stories. There is no clear narrative and I doubt it would have been as amusing in text.
Despite loving "Jesus Is Magic" and thinking "The Sarah Silverman Program" really wasn't worth the time, I somehow really wanted to read this book. If you're a young bedwetter who thinks the title is a joke (like everything else in this book, so I thought), the first third of this book is probably a really good thing. Otherwise, it's a straight-forward this-is-what-happened run-down of events in Silverman's life.
She writes of being a female comic trying to make it at SNL where she wrote and continually got rejected. Especially poignant is the bit where she gets signed, has her first lunch with the all-male cast of her writer peers who ask "What do you do then? Typing?"
She also writes of her family, especially where her father's voicemail is transcribed verbatim - including his New England dialect - and how overcoming her biggest obstacles in life has turned out.
There …
Despite loving "Jesus Is Magic" and thinking "The Sarah Silverman Program" really wasn't worth the time, I somehow really wanted to read this book. If you're a young bedwetter who thinks the title is a joke (like everything else in this book, so I thought), the first third of this book is probably a really good thing. Otherwise, it's a straight-forward this-is-what-happened run-down of events in Silverman's life.
She writes of being a female comic trying to make it at SNL where she wrote and continually got rejected. Especially poignant is the bit where she gets signed, has her first lunch with the all-male cast of her writer peers who ask "What do you do then? Typing?"
She also writes of her family, especially where her father's voicemail is transcribed verbatim - including his New England dialect - and how overcoming her biggest obstacles in life has turned out.
There are some really big laughs throughout this book. I do love how Silverman turns prejudice and being ignorant on its head by acting the complete ignoramus, often by joking about "the unutterables", e.g. The Holocaust.
Sadly, some bits that are in the book aren't really interesting (to me), e.g. the chapter about her Emmys dress being a blue block. Sounds funny, perhaps, but really wasn't. I think.
All in all: interesting and funny, but some bits should have been left out and it should have been edited - at all points.
This was a hilarious, and a little too brief (ha!), overview of the comic's life. I think I enjoyed it simply because it was Sarah Silverman and not for any specific literary quality.
