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| Me of Little Faith | 
 enlarge | Author: Lewis Black
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $12.29
You Save: $12.66 (51%)
New (36) Used (14) Collectible (4) from $11.79
Avg. Customer Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 7044
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.6 x 1
ISBN: 1594489947
Dewey Decimal Number: 200.92
EAN: 9781594489945
ASIN: 1594489947
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand NEW!
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Product Description
From the hilariously mad-as-hell Daily Show regular and New York Timesbestselling author comes a ferociously funny exploration of religion and faith.
What do we believe? And in Gods name why?
Lewis Black has the answers. Or at least his answers. He survived Hebrew school and a bar mitzvah (barely), was a sixties college student who saw the parallels between religious rapture and drug-induced visions (even if none of his friends did), explored the self-actualization movement of the seventies (and the self-indulgence it engendered), and turned a cynical eye toward politicians who don the cloak of religious rectitude to cover up their own hypocrisy.
What he learned about the inconsistencies and peculiarities of religion infuriated Black, and in Me of Little Faith they get his full comic attention. In a series of comedic inquiries, 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 whyin the language of a shock jock and with the heart of an iconoclast.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
I'm a Convert! June 8, 2008
31 out of 32 found this review helpful
This 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.
LOL Funny, if you are so inclined June 6, 2008
18 out of 20 found this review helpful
I got an autographed copy of the book from Lewis Black @ Bookends this week and purchase it with some trepidation, you know, the subject, Religion. I bought it based on Lewis himself being funny. Well if you're fed up with the religious Right or the Religious Left for that matter, you'll get it. (The people in Starbucks were looking at me because I could not stop chuckling page after page.) Subjects include: Religion & death, religion & 72 virgins ("Which would be impossible, I think, as I haven't met one on earth."), Jews & his Chanukah transformation, Mormons & religious Glasses, the call from Norman Lear, Oral Roberts & the tent, et al, and much more are up for Lewis's scrutiny. As long as you have seen him in concert and can hear his voice speaking as you read, well you can't stop laughing. You might need some understating of different religions, which enabled the joke to go over better. Warning: If you are deeply religious, you probably shouldn't buy this book. However, for the rest of us non-church going people Lewis has hit another home run. Happy Reading!
 Bless you Lewis Black June 8, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
While early parts of the book do incorporate some of his standup routines (Which he admits), the majority of the book is original content, part biographical. Some of the things he refers to could make it a little more difficult to get if you haven't read/listened to Nothing's Sacred.
The best part of this book is that the audiobook is still performed by him, as was Nothing's Sacred. If you're a fan of Lewis Black, or if you're skeptical about all forms of religion, or wondering why we believe why we do, this is a great read.
Bless you Lewis Black, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Joke.
 Back in Black in print form June 7, 2008
9 out of 14 found this review helpful
If you are fan of Lewis Black and have seen his routines then this book wont be anything new. He has taken many of of his bits from his stand-up routines and just polished them up a little for print form. Though this "polishing" is not enough that you get the signature Lewis delivery through the pages it is still entertaining and funny. So if you are familiar with Lewis Black's stand-up I would hesitantly recommend this book BUT if you are less familiar with his work then this is a definite read, quick read and incredibly funny.
 Umm ... just not that funny June 18, 2008
8 out of 18 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoy Lewis Black. I love his Daily Show bits, and whenever he hasn't been on for a while I wonder when we'll get to see him again. The interviews and bits he's been doing to promote this book have been entertaining and funny. I think of him as sort of an American version of John Cleese - get him wound up about something and watch him go.
Except for a couple genuinely funny bits about air travel, tops, and Islam ("I'm not going to say anything about Islam..."), this book just isn't the sarcastic, biting, rapid-fire Lewis Black that I've come to enjoy. He gets into rant mode occasionally but only for a couple sentences at a time and he rarely really gets on a roll. Heck, the book is almost sentimental. Which is nice of him, but not that funny, and, I'm afraid, not that interesting a read. I'm hoping that the skit that ends the book was funnier in person in the early 80s than it is to read in the late 00s.
I couldn't help but think of Julia Sweeny's wonderful Letting Go of God, her version of the spiritual journey, while reading this book. While her style of comedy is obviously totally different from Lewis Black's, the stories have similar elements but hers is so much funnier, more affecting, and truer than Me of Little Faith, which is sadly tepid and which I can't really recommend.
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