My wife picked me up Artie Lange's Too Fat to Fish for Christmas or was it Hanukkah, I'm not sure. At first I thought it would be odd to read a book written by someone you went to High School with, but then again, why not? I saw Artie a while back at a Springsteen concert and to be perfectly blunt he was genuinely happy to see me and my son Jacob.
I started reading the book yesterday and I'm more than half way through the book and it is a lot of fun. Here's who I think would get a kick out of the book...
- Any Artie fans
- Any Howard Stern fans
- Anyone under the age of 50 who grew up in Union County, NJ
- Anyone from New Jersey or NYC
- Anyone who wants to get into show business
- Anyone from a strict family
The best way to describe this book is a regular guy, growing up in a decent town outside of Newark NJ who still is close to his High School friends that had a devastating personal loss right around age 20. Any of this could have happened to you if something horrible happened to your Dad early in your life. The book has some really great stories and chronicles Artie's life story hoping to answer why a guy who has so much success continues to try and self-destruct.
I went to High School with Artie and many of the names of his friends I also knew. I can't say I was friendly with the same folks, I was kind of a nerd in High School. Artie was the funniest kid and also one of the few people who was decent to me. I can personally promise you he was a great athlete and did star on Union's Baseball team.
Reading the book and knowing him when he was young and matching it with my own dad's death this year, it seems to me that Artie is just a decent guy having a good time. If that means eating too much, drinking too much, doing drugs, etc whatever. You never know when your time is up here on earth and you should just do what works for you. We should all just stop judging people and take them for what they are and in Artie's case it's the class clown making a boatload of cash and doing it on his own terms.
Artie Lange's Too Fat to Fish - Too Good to Pass Up and a quick weekend read. Thanks for sharing.
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
Eric when you finnish reading it send it my way. I wonder if I will remember anyone. Toni
Posted by: Sister | December 30, 2008 at 01:37 AM
Hey Eric,
Nice review - it must be cool as all hell to see all those names of people you actually knew. Here are my thoughts as a comedian on the book, thought maybe you'd enjoy: http://willoneill.com/?p=319
Posted by: Will O'Neill | December 31, 2008 at 01:35 PM