Me of Little Faith: More Me! Less Faith! - Softcover

Black, Lewis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1594483779 ISBN 13: 9781594483776

Publisher: Riverhead Books, 2009

Synopsis

What do we believe? And for God's sake why?

These are the thorny questions that Lewis Black, the bitingly funny comedian, social critic, and bestselling author, tackles in his new book, Me of Little Faith. And he's come up with some answers. Or at least his answers. In more than two dozen essays that investigate everything from the differences between how Christians and Jews celebrate their holidays, to the politics of faith, to people's individual search for transcendence, Black explores his unique odyssey through religion and belief.

Growing up as a nonpracticing Jewish kid near Washington, D.C., during the 1950s, Black survived Hebrew school and a bar mitzvah (barely), went to college in the South during the tumultuous 1960s, and witnessed firsthand the unsettling parallels between religious rapture and drug-induced visions (even if none of his friends did). He explored the self-actualization movements of the 1970s (and the self-indulgence that they produced), and since then has turned an increasingly skeptical eye toward the politicians and televangelists who don the cloak of religiouos rectitude to mask their own moral hypocrisy.

What he learned along the way about the inconsistencies and peculiarities of religion infuriated Black, and in Me of Little Faith he gives full vent to his comedic rage. Black explores how the rules and constraints of religion have affected his life and the lives of us all. Hilarious experiences with rabbis, Mormons, gurus, psychics, and even the joy of a perfect round of golf give Black the chance to expound upon what we believe and why—in the language of a shock jock and with the heart of an iconoclast.

"To put it as simply as I can," Black writes, "this is a book about my relationship with religion, where my—dare I say it?—spiritual journey has taken me...what it's meant and not meant to me, and why it makes me laugh." By the end of Me of Little Faith, you'll be a convert.

About this title

About the Author

Lewis Black is the hugely popular and New York Times bestselling author, stand-up comedian, actor, and playwright. Besides appearing regularly on The Daily Show (in his own segment, "Back in Black"), he has written and starred in a string of successful HBO and Comedy Central specials and one-man Broadway shows. He's won a Grammy, an Emmy, and an American Comedy Award. Born near Washington, D.C., Black graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has a master's degree from the Yale School of Drama.

From AudioFile

Black, a well-known writer and comedian, examines religion in the acerbic, irascible manner of his stand-up shows, starting with Judaism, the faith he was born into. He tends to reject organized religion but not spirituality. There's real feeling and thought in his cynicism and salty rants, but he's still, at times, laugh-until-you-cry funny. His delivery is important, if not crucial, to that effect--reading this book in print would not be the same. At the end of the program, he performs--with cowriter Mark Linn-Baker--a short play from 1981, which treats comedy as a religion. It's so amateurishly awkward and unfunny that it almost spoils the experience of the book. But that aside, there's both substance and strong humor here. W.M. 2009 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1594483779
• ISBN 13: 9781594483776
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272