The Bedwetter

Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee

By: Sarah Silverman

Narrated by: Sarah Silverman

Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

From the outrageously filthy and oddly innocent comedienne and star of the powerful 2015 film I Smile Back Sarah Silverman comes a memoir—her first book—that is at once shockingly personal, surprisingly poignant, and still pee-in-your-pants funny. If you like Sarah's television show The Sarah Silverman Program, or memoirs such as Chelsea Handler's Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea and Artie Lange's Too Fat to Fish, you'll love The Bedwetter.

©2010 Sarah Silverman (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"Silverman takes readers on a tour of the underground tunnel that is her mind, and believe me, it is as full of muck as the sewers of Paris. Only funnier....[A]n absurdist’s delight." ( Booklist)

What a great companion for a few hours

If you could sum up The Bedwetter in three words, what would they be?

Sincere, funny, truthful

What other book might you compare The Bedwetter to and why?

Bossypants, by Tina Fey, another really smart woman comedian.

What about Sarah Silverman’s performance did you like?

She came across as a very truthful, funny, self-aware woman.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

She's not who you think she is.....or is she?

Sarah could put out a new book ever year and I would buy it

Interesting to hear about Sarah's upbringing and start in comedy but she could just tell stories about her everyday life and I think it would be interesting and funny. She definitely uses her talents as an actress and comedian to make this book come alive! Fla Fla Flooey. Write another one Sarah and Ill buy it!

For More Than SS Fans

Another fun and informative tale of a budding artist and a woman growing up in America. Valuable information about TV production and the choices to be made in the entertainment industry. Highly recommended!

love

I absolutely loved this book! Almost as much as I love and adore Her! Was bummed when it ended. now what do I read????

Pretty funny (No spoilers)

Loved her stories and behind the scenes commentary.

Disliked how she read the book. You could tell she was reading off the pages vs speaking to us as if she's telling us the stories genuinely.

Also disliked the random music that would play at the end of some of the chapters. It made it feel like it was the book's audible ending music each time.

-Alishia

Great book!

I wish more people weren't afraid to say what's on their mind like SS! 2 thumbs up

Mostly Funny, Often Thoughtful

Any additional comments?

This book is an odd mix of Silverman. It feels in large part to me the way I imagine she would be if you won some contest to have dinner with her: she’d be funny, thoughtful, a little confessional, and always herself. She’d also try a little too hard to be everything she knows you’d expect her to be.

I happen to love a lot of Silverman’s work. At her best she plays a character who’s both innocent and shocking, a kind of child-who-speaks-the-painful-truth. In that character, she’s gotten off some of the really powerful one-liners of the last decade. Out of that character, she’s reflected thoughtfully on how that character works and what her success says about contemporary America.

We get some of both aspects of that dynamic here. In a chapter where she complains about her days at summer camp, she calls Jewish summer camp, “The second worst kind of camp for Jews.” I find myself simultaneously offended and impressed at how much she can pack into so few words.

We also get a sometimes painful memoir of her life as, as the title promises, a bedwetter, something that humiliated her in adolescence and that she suggests has contributed to her public persona. And we get a few glimpses of her celebrity life, with good stories about the ways that Al Franken, Gary Shandling, and a few others inspired and mentored her.

Not everything hits, and the constant changing of tone and focus can fall flat at times, but this is still Silverman doing her best to be charming and funny, and that’s certainly good enough for me. She does both better than almost any of her peers, and I found myself a bit surprised that, when this ended, I was kind of disappointed there wasn’t more.

Heavy Dose of Sarah

What made the experience of listening to The Bedwetter the most enjoyable?

I'm a fan of Sarah Silverman's comedy, and the squirmy discomfort that comes with it. This book is a heavy dose of pure Sarah. It's more a long stand-up with some sketches here and there, than an autobiography or memoir.

Authentic & Hilarious

I've always sorta been on the fence about Sarah Silverman. I've enjoyed some of her comedy and been turned off by some, but The Bedwetter pushed me over the fence onto the pro-Sarah side.

In the book, Sarah tells interesting stories about her life as a kid, her family, & her comedian friends. She comes off as intensely likable, down to earth, and of course really really funny. I highly recommend this book if you want something uplifting that isn't saccharine.

Unexpectedly Frank.

I've loved and disliked Sarah Silverman both at the same time. I have always thought her a little more blunt about sex and bodily functions than I felt comfortable with. That being said, I adore people who speak truths and can look at their own imperfections with clarity. She reads the way she speaks and found myself busting out in laughter and a couple times almost-cry. She didn't leave me hanging in the latter emotion long though before she had me laughing again.
At the end of this book I put down my phone and thought, "I could actually hang out with this immature 40 something."