A review by emilycdennis
The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee by Sarah Silverman

funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

2.25

I really enjoyed the beginning of the book when Sarah reflects on her childhood and adolescence- lots of laugh out loud moments. However, the book really soured for me with her continued use of the r-word and as she began recounting tales from her adulthood, racial slurs against the Asian and Black communities. I get that it was a little more socially acceptable 13 years ago to use words as such and comedians loved to market themselves as "edgy" by using jokes for seemingly nothing more than just shock value, but it still irked me. Using the hard r? Seriously? Absolutely not, even in 2010. 

Not sure if this next part is actually a spoiler but I'll still tag and hide it-

She even talks about how she pushed to use the word "n*****" on a big network TV talk show interview and when they wouldn't concede, she settled for "c****" instead. Then she acted like she was shocked when members of the Center for Asian Americans in Media were (rightfully) upset about the use of the slur in her interview and seemed to try to play the victim in the situation. The author also talks about how she made malicious comments about two white female celebrities who were going through really difficult and very public private issues while hosting award shows, and how sorry and regretful she felt afterwards. She seems to praise herself for apologizing to them (as she should have, the comments were hurtful and unwarranted) and growing from that experience, but mentions nothing about realizing how hurtful and wrong it was to use racial slurs against minorities, even when she was made aware to the harm. Really frustrating and irritating.

 

Listening to this book wasn't a total waste of time, but I won't be recommending it to anyone.