Attempting Normal

If you told me I would connect on a deep emotional level with a self absorbed cynical emotionally crippled neurotic Jewish comedian's memoirs, I would be sure you had me confused with someone else. But who knew? I really related to Marc Maron's world view and critical self analysis. Even if I didn't, I still think I would have laughed hard and long at his book, Attempting Normal. It is a scathing self analysis mixed with stand up routine, confessional and too much information, but for me it worked. As comedy, and as literature. I loved it and consider it among my favorite in the memoir genre.

This is the spur of the moment review I wrote to satisfy the LibraryThing Early Reviewer Algorithm which has gifted me with so many wonderful free reads in exchange for my grateful and humble opinion.  I posted it to Amazon too. And tweeted about it too. That's how much I want this book to find an audience. I hope good things for this book, because besides being funny, it was cathartic for me too.





Abnormally Funny by Marc Maron

With no frame of reference or previous exposure to Marc Maron, I read an advanced copy of his book and laughed myself silly. I want everyone I know to read this book because it is the funniest laugh out loud memoir I've read in years and I want to spread the endorphins around. Marc Maron is brutally and neurotically honest in examining his life and he has a gift for turning sad and sordid events into funny ones. I bookmarked over a dozen passages to reread because they made me laugh so hard.

For the record, I'm female, so parts of the book made me cringe, deeply, but the author gets my respect for having no shame in exposing his most embarrassing moments, which are among some of the funniest in the book. In addition to the laughter, the book is a good read as a memoir, an attempt to understand a crazy life, a cautionary tale of substance abuse, an inspiration for recovery and as encouragement for aspiring artists. I could relate to many chapters in the book, which cover a crazy wide range of topics in a stream of consciousness vein, and marveled that someone finally calls out adorable hummingbirds for the vicious territorial murderers they truly are. Relationships, parents, sex, feral cats, air travel, shrink to fit jeans, clown dunking and near death experiences are just a few of the topics explored, and it would be hard to choose a favorite chapter.

 Marc Maron is everywhere right now, on the internet, cable and network tv and I wish him well. He has paid his dues and he has a comedic gift. I'll be checking out his podcasts and tv show to offset the endorphin withdrawal, because laughter is the best drug of them all. Thanks to LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program for the book and Mr. Maron for the laughs. I tried really hard to think of a funnier book I've read, and would rate the laughs per page of Attempting Normal alongside Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods and J. Maarten Troost's Getting Stoned with the Savages and The Sex Lives of Cannibals.

Either that means I have really good taste in humor books or I am as warped as the author, but I don't plan on overthinking it right now.