Sarah Silverman

I enjoyed this a lot. A surprisingly quick read, and honest, charming, goofy & funny with it. Felt like it skated over a load of stuff, possibly due to Silverman not wanting to reveal too much, or else just simple satisficing. Some of the writing was great, but description isn't really her thing. I could imagine a lot of people finding it underwhelming. It hasn't really changed my opinion of Silverman (I like her work, though sometimes find it a bit forced), but I do have a slightly better feel for who she is. I guess if you don't like her work, and particularly if you're not of a liberal or at least a bohemian-sympathetic disposition, this probably isn't the book for you.… (more)

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.… (more)

Apparently, I should have watched a little more of Sarah Silverman on TV before I undertook reading her memoir. I knew she could be very funny, but I didn't know a lot about her.

And she is very funny – if you have the sense of humor more common in 12-year old boys. To me, she never outgrew that stage in babies where they become enamored with their own bodily functions and emissions. What do you expect of someone whose father taught her to swear, and quite graphically, at age 3. In the foreword (which she claims to be groundbreaking in itself), she states, “Tragically, my life has been only moderately [expletive, one of many] up. Actually, she did have some life-changing incidents, and adding being a habitual bedwetter only added to that. At a sleepover, “What kind of person reacts to a child's wet pajamas with rage and no compassion?”

And when she wore a jean jacket to a upscale friend's house, the friend's mother made the friend repeat to Sarah the comment, “only scumbags wear jean jackets.” Or perhaps, only scumbags denigrate a child's clothing.

So yes, people were mean. And yes, Sarah is funny. But I got really tired of the memoir when it became little other than tasteless jokes and pranks. And while I'm not easily offended at some bad language, this one was beyond the pale for me.

I read this ebook through a Kindle Unlimited subscription.… (more)