When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?

September 20, 2004
Stand-up comedian, TV writer and silver screen actor Carlin gets louder, angrier and more inventive with each passing year, and following 2001's bestselling Napalm & Silly Putty
, he fires off searing satires, stinging social commentary and oblique one-liners in all directions. He targets Diane Sawyer's news delivery and the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, dopey athletes and cutthroat businessmen in wound up, jumpy paragraphs. Crudeness abounds ("Do you think Dale Evans ever yelled, 'Giddyup, Roy!' when she was getting fucked by Roy Rogers?"), but so does righteous indignation ("The energy criminals now refer to oil drilling
as oil exploration
. Instead of Mobil and Exxon, they'd rather you picture Lewis and Clark"). Some offbeat observations ("Wouldn't it be weird if they just buried you alive when you got to be sixty-five?") serve as springboards for mini-essays. But the theme, ultimately, is language. From the syntax of corporate rebranding (Patagonian tooth fish becomes Chilean sea bass) to the ethics of speechmaking ("Leader of the free world
. I don't know when we're going to retire that stupid shit, but personally I've heard it quite long enough"), bad grammar, marketing lingo, meaningless sentiments, political correctness ("America's newest form of intolerance") and euphemisms all come under serious attack, making this a surprisingly fitting companion—a sort of bad-ass cousin—to Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots & Leaves
. Agent, Jerold Hamza.
(Oct. 12)

Forecast:
Carlin's first book,
Brain Droppings, spent some 40 weeks on the
Times bestseller list;
Napalm didn't match that, but it was no slouch. Expect Carlin's latest to hit the lists as soon as his
Today show spot airs, if not before.

September 15, 2004
The latest book by longtime stand-up comic Carlin will undoubtedly join his previous "acts" in book form on the best-seller lists, so expect demand. Here are more of his irreverent, hilarious takes on contemporary social and political issues; as anyone who is familiar with his routines and books knows, Carlin doesn't let current notions of what is politically correct stand in the way of his taking a jab. So this series of short observations, one flung at the reader right after another, encompasses the Ten Commandments ("a padded list"), an anti-plastic surgery stance ("Ugliness should be a permanent condition"), body maintenance ("Every time you clip [a toenail], the little clipped part flies several feet away. You notice that?"), and euphemistic language (the first instance was being instructed to call his aunt's mole a "beauty mark"). The book is not meant to be read straight through but, rather, dipped into here and there. The language is explicit; therefore, this is not recommended for readers advocating propriety in speech on every occasion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)

Starred review from November 1, 2004
There's no better way to enjoy one of Carlin's books than to hear him read it himself. With his gravelly voice, Carlin sounds like a foul-mouthed, grumpy grandfather as he riffs on everything from politics and the improper use of language to plane-boarding etiquette and the differences between the sexes. He's alternately crude ("Every evening at seven-thirty, citizens and consumers get a chance to sound off and air their complaints. Don't miss Blow It Out Your Ass!
...") and outrageously funny (such as when he compares people of faith to UFO believers), and he's always irreverent ("A children's museum sounds like a good idea, but I would imagine it's not very easy to breathe inside the little glass cases"). The one topic that gets under his skin is euphemisms and, related to that, political correctness: "I can remember when I was young that poor people lived in slums. Not anymore. These days, the economically disadvantaged occupy substandard housing in the inner cities. It's so much nicer for them." Needless to say, Carlin has his comic timing down pat. His energetic reading is punctuated by conversational bits ("Hah? Whaddya think? Maybe?") and enhanced by his deft vocal variation (such as when he's narrating the "Continuing Story of Mary & Joseph"), making listeners will feel as if they've got a front-row seat at one of his comedy shows. Simultaneous release with the Hyperion hardcover (Forecasts, Sept. 20).