Review: Howard Stern Comes Again

Howard Stern Comes Again by Howard Stern
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I referred to Marc Maron as an "acquired taste," but Stern is an even tougher sell. Why? His reputation as "shock jock" precedes him, not in a good way. He sorta rose to fame being over the top vulgar and obnoxiously disrespectful, uncouth and brazen, all about nothing but sex, maybe misogynistic. You might be wondering, "what the hell would I even want to bother?" I always had a sense about him, an intuitive feel that there were so many layers down other, more than he was letting us in on. This book is his latest--and it's special. It's the product of him having gone to psychotherapy for many years and introspecting analytically and deeply about himself, his motivations, his insecurities. In this book, not only does he pick his favorite interviews, he builds a personal context for each of them, and shares his vulnerabilities with us. He's not play acting here, not out to make a quick buck, not out to sell his book. No--he shows us his heart and just how bad he feels about himself, how harshly he criticizes himself, which is partly what drives him. He talks about his complex relationship with his other growing up and how this shaped his comedy. Stern has grown up, taken responsibility for his life and he lets us peek under the hood of his psyche. We're the lucky ones here, and if we feed his ego in helping book sales, so be it. The man has more than earned it. Why are we here, after all, if not to help one another, right, in whatever small measure? You'll love each interview: the most special ability and unique feature of the interviews is Stern's ability to go "meta-level." He frequently comments on not just the content , but the process of the interview, and artfully draws the interviewee out a bit more. Stern is so loveable, so vulnerable--his kind and good heart leaps of the page. My litmus test: do I want to meet him? Since I very rarely want to meet any celebrity, I' leap at the chance to meet him just to thank him for doing this work, and give him a hug of gratitude :-)

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