The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee

Having only heard Sarah Silverman being interviewed on the Howard Stern show and seeing her in that sadly overplayed "I ****** Matt Damon" video, I had mixed feelings about her. I loved her authenticity but she also kind of annoyed me.Then I read "Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee" and realized that the reason she annoyed me was because she and I are so similar but that she's making millions of dollars with her brilliance and I'm not.I absolutely loved this book. Wonderful story and even on my Kindle, the photos looked terrific and that was a great thing since the captions that go with each of them are some of the most hilarious parts of Sarah's story.I'm not crazy about fart, vagina, and penis humor. In fact, it makes me roll my eyes most times and has me searching for my Bonne Bell Lipsmacker to go with the immediate flashback of sitting in front of Jimmy Merkle in 7th grade homeroom. But Sarah is able to sprinkle in these junior high moments and references in just the right way and amount that before you can get totally grossed out, she takes you on another twist that is more Judy Blume than perverted, pocket pool playing 7th grade punk-boy.I devoured this read. SO much fun and she is such a survivor.....and her self-effacing way of telling her story is so painfully and hilariously honest at the same time that you just cannot stop wishing that you'd run into her somewhere and let her know that you're one of her admirers.Crazy talented, courageous, irreverent, brilliantly funny......I am so happy that I got to know the REAL Sarah Silverman and have been able to use this to replace my previously judgmental and jealous version of her.GREAT READ!!!

I found the book to be enjoyable. It's a memoir, the life story of the comedian, Sarah Silverman, where she seems pretty sincere in writing about what appear to be the major milestones of her life. She does not hold back in her forthright profuse description of sexual and potty stuff, while also revealing a person with very moral and ethical values when it comes to the really important things the world faces. From the book, I found these things worth noting:1.She writes about her bedwetting as a youth and how it affected her, depressing her quite a bit. Her father and his father were also bedwetters. The depression peaked with her taking as many as 16 Xanax pills a day2. She talks about a key bad experience with a boyfriend, early on.3. She became a vegetarian out of her concern for animals.4. At 13, when visiting her sister at Berkeley, she got exposed to drugs by a neighbor of hers and he also gave her a gift of Playgirl and Penthouse magazines, and she claims that is what really began her focusing on sexual stuff for her comedy. Since the 3rd grade, she always knew she wanted to be a comedian.5. Her parents never hit her and they encouraged her and gave her lots of love. Beginning at age 15 her parents let her take shuttle trips from New Hampshire to New York City and she knew early on she wanted to eventually get out of New Hampshire and live in NYC. She said she felt like a goat among sheep in NH, but a goat among goats in NYC. She enrolled at NYU, majoring in drama, in Greenwich Village after HS. She would hand out flyers at a comedy club after classes eventually getting chances to do stand-up. She then quit NYU before starting her sophomore year and her dad offered to pay for her to live in NYC since it would be cheaper than going to NYU and he knew what she really wanted to do anyway - comedy, so she did that, living in Greenwich Village.6. Never had stage fright - she thinks because after she stopped bedwetting, nothing could be as embarrassing as that.7. Her approach to everything gross in life like drugs, sex, etc is to "make it a treat," that is everything in moderation.8. At 22 she got interviewed by Saturday Night Live and got hired as a writer/performer, however none of her skits made it past dress rehearsal and coincidentally or not was fired after one year after hitting Al Franken in the temple with a sharp pencil - a joke gone bad. She claims Chris Farley positively influenced her with an incident where Farley had been with SNL 3 years, but was still in awe of what had gone on before he came there. So, it gave her the strength to face future challenges.9. Always felt she didn't know how to dress and her disastrous Emmy Awards dress was a result.10. Being creative, she puts in a midword in her book, to take a break and say what she was doing when not writing. Likewise, she wrote her own foreword in the book - she claims groundbreaking.11. She writes about disputes with the publisher/editor about things like the title and other stuff.12. She writes about the racism she sees in the media - more nuanced than in the past - really uses her comedy to fight racism.13. She writes about her incidents as host at MTV award shows - and her loss of tact with her comments about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.14. Writes about her film, "Jesus is Magic" and the "Sarah Silverman Program" on Comedy Central and how the network was tolerant of her edgy stuff also showing some of the hate mail she received about how God was presented in her program. Also writes about her pro-union position even when facing cost control issues from the network.15. She talks about love and that she only really needs a man around a lot is for watching TV while cuddling in bed.17. Near the end of the book she has a chapter writing about being a Jew and what she thinks about Judaism - although she is secular she thinks Judaism is an OK religion, with many criticisms about Catholicism like the ostentacious Vatican and the child-abusing priests. When her parents divorced, although the divorce worked out well, she did spend time in a convent while her mom worked, and she was very critical of the violence used by the nuns for discipline. She realizes she comes across as a Jew and for that Jews like her and she is proud of "The Great Schlep" where she helped Obama win support of Florida's elderly Jews. She then has an afterward where she has God reflect about things like being nice to her in letting her finish the book.Overall, since Sarah Silverman is controversial, I recommend the book for those who like her, but probably not for those who don't.

I nearly pissed my pants while reading the foreword (written in expert fashion by the author herself), and had that been the entire story, it would have rivaled any humor tale I'd ever picked up. But sadly, there was more to THE BEDWETTER: STORIES OF COURAGE, REDEMPTION, AND PEE, and it wasn't entirely filled with plastic sheets covered mania. While this is just a rough guess, I'd say the first half of the book was literary comedic genius. Filled with chuckles and flat-out bits of hysteria. And I was plowing through it like a horse that had been slapped on the behind one too many times.Unfortunately, the second half turned into what felt like more of a promotion for The Sarah Silverman Program (TSSP for short) and contemplative reflection on her time on Saturday Night Live, where she told us on more than one occasion how none of her stories were picked up during her one year stint on the show and gave us a bit of insight into how the writing process actually worked. Sure, it was interesting, but I'd hoped for more funny. A lot more of it. After the absolute promise of the first half.I mean, this is the woman who at six years of age told her grandmother to shove brownies up her ass. This held plenty of promise, but I felt a little cheated on what I'd actually been delivered. Similar to going to a restaurant and asking for Filet Mignon but receiving a Ribeye instead.Still, if you want a good read and the opportunity to laugh like a maniac, you may find yourself skipping along joyously with this one. Like me, though, you may end up a bit disappointed with the second half of the book.Robert DownsAuthor of Falling Immortality: Casey Holden, Private Investigator