Too Fat to Fish by Artie Lange, Anthony Bozza Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Too Fat to Fish
Book Review: Page Turner
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great read, even for people like me who don't closely follow the Stern Show.Book Review: Really insightful for fans
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been a fan for a long time and have been meaning to get this book. It is incredibly revealing an honest. I expected it to be more jokes and good time stories but it really is a very dark look into someone struggling with drugs.Book Review: Regular old addict stuff; I like Artie, not this book
Summary: 2 Stars
First of all, in an odd way, I do find myself not managing to hate Artie, despite his terrible behavior over the last several years, and his aggressive courting of failure, which he has finally managed to seduce in full.
Artie's book claims that he's being honest, and he tells a lot of drug stories. But the drug stories aren't very honest, because he didn't admit explicitly what we now know to be true: Artie had not kicked his addictions, and he doesn't have appeared to have tried very hard. If you didn't know anything about Artie, this book leads one to expect that he has gone onto great things. He also didn't discuss the very real failure of Beer League. A passion project? Give me a break! Beer League, like this book, are just vanity projects meant to squeeze every last drop out of his fleeting fame.
If I were his ghost writer, I would have insisted on a much different book being written.
Yet, as I sit here, thinking of Artie telling his story about the bookie threatening him with ashes on his forehead brings a smile to my face. There is something endearing about the guy. But one has to conclude that rather than trying to beat his demons, Artie feels entitled to embrace them, since he has had struggle in his life. How could a decent person do that to his mother? Didn't his mother and sister face the exact same struggle? Why did he feel the right to add to their burden? Artie never feels the need to bother to explain that.
With the benefit of hindsight, this book reads as a completely phony addict's memoir. His stories are not funny in the context of subsequent events, they are sad and predictable, and he has only himself to blame.
In one of the early chapters of this book, Artie pats himself on the back for making the courageous decision to try his hand at show business, quitting a steady union job. Of course this was a great decision, because it worked out so well, he implies. Now, I think even he would have to question whether that wasn't a huge mistake, and whether a life with less at stake would have forced him to be more accountable.
I do wish the guy well, and I think he could build a career on talking about his past mistakes, with one crucial addition: he would have to have REALLY learned to stop making them. I hope he is now at that point, but at the same time, it is not clear to me that a return to the spotlight is what is best for him.
But at the end of the day, this is not a good book at all.
Book Review: So I have a little ADD problem
Summary: 5 Stars
I can't sit down and read a book for the life of me, but Too Fat to Fish was one of the few books I couldn't put down.Book Review: Too Drunk To Write
Summary: 1 Stars
Fine novel if the reader is expecting to here about how Artie continued to stay drunk and loaded with a series of enablers. Not only is this not worth reading, it made me wonder how a novel which sends the message that it is OK to live life in a drug and alcohol fog can be a best seller. The message is that it is not only Ok, but lavish attention and money will be heaped on for not dying in the process.