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.
Eddie Sarfaty is a natural storyteller, and his candid wit, caustic yet surprisingly poignant, proves just as endearing and hilarious in print as it is onstage.
Authors' praise for Mental
"Eddie Sarfaty’s Mental made me laugh out loud on the subway, eliciting glares from strangers. Read it in public if you don’t mind drawing attention to yourself, read it in private if you do mind, but read it."
-- Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Hours
“Eddie Sarfaty's humor is never cruel -- or only as cruel as life itself. Whereas most humorists are so broad, so exaggerated that no chapter is as funny as a single page and no page as funny as a sentence, Sarfaty doesn't deal in one-liners or cheap laughs. All his laughs are expensive -- they call on deep reserves of observation, humanity and kindness. This is a book you will read in one sitting all the way to the end with a smile on your face and tears in your eyes.”
-- Edmund White, author of A Boy's Own Story
"Eddie Sarfaty is a gifted stand-up comic, but his book is not just a collection of humorous sketches and clever one-liners. These are fully realized true-life stories, fresh and well-observed, expertly crafted and naturally funny. Sarfaty uses comedy not to keep his people at arm's length but to bring us closer to them. He is not afraid to move us and he is not afraid to be smart. And he writes beautifully, like an angel with a wise heart and a wonderfully foul mouth."
-- Christopher Bram, author of God’s & Monsters
“In this engaging and frequently hilarious collection, Eddie Sarfaty combines humor and poignancy as skillfully as he writes about being Jewish and gay. This book proves that in addition to being a talented stand-up comedian, Eddie's also a wonderful writer.”
-- Bob Smith, author of Selfish & Perverse
"Eddie Sarfaty 's new book, Mental, initially seems to be a pleasingly accessible memoir of very funny, linked stories. It turns out to be a searingly opinionated, totally original, blowtorch of a memoir of very funny, linked stories. Reading Mental's sorta like reaching for a bottle of fruit punch Gatorade, and realizing mid gulp that you're downing hot paprika-spiked Hungarian moonshine."
-- Eric Orner, author of The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green
"Anyone who reads this book and doesn't fall in love with Eddie Sarfaty is an idiot."
--Michael Thomas Ford, author of Last Summer
"In Mental: Funny in the Head, Sarfaty mixes the grotesque and the tender into a heartbreaking portrait of family, that most potent of touchstones. Sarfaty creates a world that echoes the poignant irony of David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs but is, without question, entirely his own."
-- Patrick Moore, author of Tweaked
"It's very good, but I could do without the language."
-- Sonny Sarfaty, Eddie's mom
"Hilarious! If only he were this funny on Wednesdays at 3."
-- Dr. Ben, Eddie's shrink
