Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me
Edited by Ben Karlin

Grade: C+
by Radley Little

 
When I first got this book, I was really excited because the names of contributors on the cover comprise a very impressive list of respectable comedians and writers including Stephen Colbert, Will Forte, Andy Richter, Bob Odenkirk, and Larry Wilmore among others. Each gives a short (2-7 page) memoir about a particularly memorable/humiliating female interaction. Most are at least mildly amusing but I feel like the confinement of each to just a few pages keeps each from crossing the line from 'funny anecdote' to 'must-read.'

The majority of the contributions appear to be true (except for Stephen Colbert's) and provide the reader with an outstretched empathetic hand in literary form with quite a few laughs along the way. Reading first-hand accounts of these prominent comedians in their most pathetic moments is definitely refreshing in the typically self-aggrandizing entertainment industry. While most come in the form of narratives of memoirs, the more adventurous ones take the forms of telephone conversations, screenplays, timelines, and letters. Perhaps the funniest one was written by Patton Oswalt in which he compares his current wife to a stripper he used to date.

There are a few shortcomings of the book. First, I was under the impression that the book was supposed to be funny based on the names of comedians that grace the front. I'm thinking that the editor Ben Karlin (former executive producer of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and editor of The Onion) didn't clarify this fact to a few of the contributors who simply wrote narratives about lessons they've learned that weren't very funny at all. Secondly, the stories get repetitive towards the end of the book. A lot are about college girlfriends and sexual failings and by the time you reach the end, you might feel like you're reading the same story over again with different names. On top of that, I think sexual jokes (although they are definitely a part of this particular topic) are the lowest rung of comedy; appealing to the kind of loser who carves the word "dick" into a bathroom stall. 

This book has some high points and some low points. It's not a bad read, but it's certainly not the best thing I've read this year.