Eddie Sarfaty's astute and acerbic stand-up effortlessly captures the everyday absurdities of life, blending self-deprecation and sarcasm with a razor-sharp instinct for the ridiculous. In Mental, he expands his hilarious insights into a collection of autobiographical essays that explore career lows, cheapskate exes, the wonder and hell of family, psychopathic felines, and so much more…
Whether recounting a family trip to Paris, where his ailing father shouts obscenities at the Mona Lisa, or discovering his mother surfing JewHunt.net in search of a mahjong à trois, Eddie excels at bitingly, but lovingly, mocking his family.
Spotlighting his own misadventures with equal relish, Eddie recounts his darkly funny experience stage managing an ill-fated Portuguese production of The Phantom of the Opera, reveals taking Ecstasy before lunch with Hillary Clinton, and recalls a one-night stand whose fondness for balloon animals would have animal activists up in arms.
3 Reasons To buy this book
Mental is a stellar comedic debut.
The first story in the collection was made into a fantastic short film.
Sarfaty is a new literary voice and we can't wait for more.
Review
For most of us the idea of broadcasting our embarrassing life experiences is not one that we relish. For Eddie Sarfaty though, it means bank! In his first collection of autobiographical essays, stand-up comedian Eddie Sarfaty translates his act into print. Unfortunately for him, the work he put forth will inevitably be compared to the more experienced master of satire, David Sedaris. This isn’t to say that Sarfaty isn’t funny, or even more important, readable. He has a lot to work with from his cheapskate ex-boyfriend and his evil adopted cat with gastrointestinal malfunctions. At its core this book is rudimentarily funny. But when his stories lull, they lull, and he doesn’t have the finesse to bring them all the way back, not yet at least.
While some of the humor may be lost in translation it is still pretty darned funny. For us the bang of the book is in getting to know its author even if the stories are a little disjointed and the rhythm a little rocky. Some debuts are forgettable, but not in this case. We are looking forward to his next collection because it is pretty obvious that Sarfaty’s talent for storytelling, and believe us he has stories, will likely only get better.
