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The Jerusalem Syndrome My Life As a Reluctant Mes
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Rating: 4.6/5 from 5 reviews A few really good parts, anyway.Insightful, frank, intelligent, worthwhileRead this book. I read it in a day. I went back and underlined the good parts. I told a number of friends about it. You don't have to know anything about Judaism or Israel to appreciate Maron's spiritual journey. It's the funniest thing I've ever purchased online. Great bookHaving been a fan, I had a great time reading this. Strongly recommended. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The book is a fragmentary autobiography of some events in Maron's life, very little of which is directly related to his career as a standup comic.
The brief first chapter foreshadows the events that will occur later in the book during Maron's trip to Israel.
Chapters two through five cover Maron's life up to high school. I simply didn't find this stuff to be very interesting.
Chapter six covers Maron's college years, focusing on him adopting the Beat religion. The ideas and events in this chapter are very interesting, they're written about very well, and the chapter is very funny.
Chapter seven is another highlight of the book, covering the modest beginnings of his career as his comedian and his relationship (friendship is too strong of word) with Sam Kinison. Like the previous chapter the events here are interesting and funny, if not scary.
In chapter eight Maron recounts his foray into conspiracy theory, and how his credulity for that intellectual junk food led to him making a fool of himself. He does save some face, though, by turning his mind back on before the chapter is through. Maron does make a really good observation about conspiracy theory literature:
"The thing about conspiracy literature is that it's perfect for stupid people who want to seem smart and ground their hatred in something completely mystical and confusing, and it's good for smart people who are too lazy to do their homework. People can't argue with it without possibly implicating themselves."
What I don't get is, if this stuff really happened, how is it possible that he didn't learn from this and avoid the whole Jerusalem Syndrome thing, if that stuff really happened, too?
Chapter nine is hilarious, as Maron tells of his visits to a Philip Morris plant and the Coca-Cola museum. Maron gives great, detailed accounts of these visits and makes many humorous but true, if not obvious, observations.
Chapter ten provides a mish-mash of professional and personal experiences. I simply didn't think this stuff was very interesting or funny.
Chapters eleven through thirteen contain the events foreshadowed in the first chapter, including his trip to Israel and his experience with Jerusalem Syndrome. I don't know how much of this is true or exaggerated, but I thought most of this stuff was pretty stupid. Some of it is funny, but not in a very good way. Perhaps a Jewish person could relate to this more and find some value in it, but I could not.
Chapter fourteen is simply excellent. Maron returns home to do a benefit show for his old synagogue. He sees some friends and acquaintances from his youth and ends up helping out in a pretty big way. This concluding chapter is interesting and touching.
The Jerusalem Syndrome contains very little about Maron's career as a standup comic. There's a little bit about him getting his foot in the door as a comedian at The Comedy Store and then later a bit as he starts to make a name for himself with appearances on television. If you want more on the life and times of a standup comic, I don't think you can do any better than True Story, Bill Maher's fictional story of several standup comics trying to make careers for themselves during standup's golden years.
This book has some really good parts, but at least as many not so good parts. Perhaps the good parts make up for the not so good parts, but overall this was pretty disappointing considering how hilarious Maron's standup is. In any event, I'd rather just have more of Maron's standup comedy on CD or DVD.