If you already loved Artie Lange before reading this, you're going to adore him when you've finished it. In this first part of his autobiography (he has hinted at a second book somewhere down the line), he reveals a young boy growing up in New Jersey. His parents loved and supported him and encouraged him. Still, he managed to get himself addicted to alcohol, cocaine, and ultimately heroin.
He attempted suicide, and he screwed up a starring role in the cast of the MADtv series. You have to love that.
The thing is, Lange is probably more talented than you and I; he certainly has more money, and he is way more popular. But he is also way more messed up, more insecure, and more unstable, and that makes him way more appealing and likeable. We don't want our heroes appearing untouchable and problem-free. We want - need- to see blemishes and flaws. And Artie has a lot of them.
This is an amazingly honest book from one of the funniest guys who ever lived. He is also self-destructive (that's obvious in the chapter about his almost-suicide) and doesn't seem to care much about life.
You must read this. Prediction: If Artie Lange doesn't pull it together within the next couple of years, he's going to go the way of John Belushi and Chris Farley. And that would be a melancholy too hard to bear.