Photo: Zimbio

Sarah Silverman is an adorable-tomboy-next-door with a heart of gold and tongue of acid. She talks dirty and makes jokes that are provocative, or offensive, depending on whether you find her funny or not. She’s the kind of comedian who loves nothing better than venturing into the risky topics of race, sex and religion to nimbly navigate some potentially explosive stuff.

So, after taking her unique brand of  comedy to television with Comedy Central’s The Sarah Silverman Program and warming up the Internet with her YouTube videos “I’m F***ing Matt Damon” and “Sell The Vatican, Feed The World,” she makes her literary debut with The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee.

I just finished reading it.

Photo: Harper Collins

You might be surprised to hear that it’s not merely a collection of gags and stand-up leftovers.  Sarah’s book is, in fact,  a nicely crafted narrative about how a rebellious comic perspective evolved and became inseparable from the person who employs it, and how anyone who could find offense in that is really the butt of the joke. The book also offers consistently engaging stories of alternative-comedy icons before they were semi-famous, and provides dimension to a high-profile stand-up who’s always been accused of being one-note.

She deftly mixes the funny stuff with an enlightened look back at her not-so-charmed life and career. The book’s title is a reference to the chronic enuresis that plagued Silverman into her teens, but Silverman also writes about dealing with severe depression and, as a result, a seriously misprescribed Xanax regimen. The book is irreverent, funny and sometimes emotional.

The quirky comedian details the ups and downs of her life with candor and an impressive capacity for self-reflection, all while spouting sweetly profane aphorisms. Most chapters are only vaguely organized, but the strange combination of irreverent silliness and undiluted earnestness makes her book a great read.

Conclusion: I love Sarah Silverman and I think her book is as cute as she is.