The subtitle does the work: the true tale of a white boy from Oakland who became a drug addict, criminal, mental patient, and then turned sixteen.
Deaf parents, a split between Oakland and a Hasidic community in Brooklyn, therapy from age four, and a full collapse into addiction before he could legally drive.
It is a comedian’s memoir, so the delivery is relentless, and the trick it pulls is letting the jokes carry material that would be unbearable told straight. The recovery section is where the comedy thins out and the book gets better.
Read August 2023.
