Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 256 pages
- Published by: Riverhead Hardcover June 3, 2008
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 1594489947
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-1594489945
-
Book Dimensions:
8.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
- Weighs: 12 ounces
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Readers already familiar with Black as a loud-mouthed regular on
The Daily Show will be delighted to find he rants just as well on the page as he does in person. Here, he homes in on religion, which he thinks is taken too seriously and therefore is open to ridicule. Black may not care a whit about propriety, but he's serious about waxing comedic about every religion-related angle he can dig up. No one is safe from his dark humor—the Catholic Church, Mormons, people who commit suicide in the name of faith, Jews, and of course Jesus and God are popular topics. Black's essays consistently deliver zingers, like his speculation in The Rapture about how, If Jesus returns to earth he better have one hell of a website, since he'd have to compete with all the drug-addled young starlets—not to mention online porn. For those not easily offended, who can stomach the F-word every other paragraph or so, Black's irreverence is laugh-out-loud funny. The chapters are short, some extremely so, and perfect for a good laugh—before bedtime prayers, of course.
(June 3) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Review
Praise for Lewis Black: “Whenever I’m asked, ‘Who makes you laugh?’ or ‘Who would you pay to see?’ I don’t hesitate for a moment. Lewis Black! Period. He’s got it all: brains, balls, and chops. And he sees through all the bullshit.”
—George Carlin
“Lewis Black is the only human being I know who can actually yell in print form.”
—Jon Stewart
“Lewis Black—the most engagingly pissed-off comedian ever.”
—Stephen King
Reader ReviewsThis is an hilarious set of essays documenting one man's effort to understand his own spirituality as well as that which has been (and continues to be) thrust upon him by his semi-Jewish upbringing and many well-meaning friends. Honestly, I was in tears with laughter as he suggested those of us who gather annually to fight over Christmas dinner should keep our voices down lest we wake the baby Jesus. (I don't recall inviting Lewis Black to my family's Christmas dinner, but I could swear he'd given a fairly accurate account in this book!) The zealots of religion (i.e., those who feel they need to step in and defend God) need to turn away from this book immediately. If you can't laugh at yourself and your human foibles -- especially with regard to how you practice your faith -- you won't find this book funny at all. The rest of us -- those of us who know we are human, frail, and utterly laughable at times in the eyes of God as well as those around us -- are ready converts to Black's satire of the human spiritual condition. OK, I could have done without the reprint of the play toward the end of the book. Some comedy just doesn't come across when you read it on the page because you need the voices and the visual nonverbals to make it work. I expect it would be hilarious if I could actually see it (note to publishers: Next time just give us a DVD or a URL, OK?), but it doesn't do well when read. But that's the only little sour note in this collection. It's funny, it's touching, and it's the best set of observations on faith in the US I've ever had the pleasure of reading.
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