Navel Gazing

November 30, 2015
Actor and comedian Black delivers a solid, sensitive, and often appropriately silly look at “time and family and the body” in his second memoir (after You’re Not Doing It Right, which focused on romantic relationships and marriage). Black discusses the ways he began to think about himself “from a physical perspective, as opposed to a more mental or creative perspective.” This shift began when his mother was diagnosed with a degenerative, inoperable bone condition, and it deepened after he turned 40. Black uses his account of his mother’s painful illness as a jumping-off point for hilarious and insightful riffs on religion (“Although I can’t quite bring myself to believe in God, I pretty much believe in everything else”), why he hates running (“I, too, have experienced the runner’s high. I get it every time I stop”), and buying life insurance (“A great way to guarantee I’ll live, because I have never outwitted a corporation and I doubt I ever will”). Unlike many other books by comedians, this memoir never feels like a series of onstage routines transcribed to make a buck. Black’s examination of the many meanings of being a middle-aged father, husband, and son is an insightful and eminently readable story. Agent: Barry Goldblatt, Barry Goldblatt Literary Agency.

October 15, 2015
A dying mother puts a middle-aged humorist more in touch with his own mortality. Title aside, this memoir mentions Black's navel hardly at all. The author obsesses more on the feet and toes that have embarrassed him longer than other appendages and on his "flaccid penis, hanging down like an aardvark snout." Meditations on the author's body generally alternate with reports on his failing mother and her various operations, including a "bellybuttonectomy" that left her without a navel on which to gaze. Much of the material here could be dark, even grim, but Black sustains a light touch throughout, projecting a warmth that extends from his relationship with his mother through his family life with wife and children. On the one hand, he recognizes that "every body inevitably fails....They are the very definition of planned obsolescence." On the other hand, though he admits that the darker truths of existence have led him to contemplate suicide, he maintains, "I don't ever plan on killing myself. For that matter, I don't ever plan on dying. But I also know that circumstances change, people change, minds change." Death (even suicide) permeates this book, yet it is the kind of book that some folks buy others to put the aging process in perspective, to have a laugh or two at it, to keep from taking oneself and one's fate too seriously. So there are plenty of episodes that find the hapless author trying to combat aging by joining a gym or training for a distance race, and there are a few interludes that have nothing to do with aging at all but which didn't fit in his other books (he terms this a follow-up to You're Not Doing It Right, 2012) and omits material (such as that concerning his dad) that might have worked fine here but which he'd previously written about. A slight, breezy memoir that delves into serious subjects.

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December 15, 2015
Black's (You're Not Doing It Right, 2012) mother's cancer diagnosis and his encroaching middle age drive the comedian/author's latest memoir. Black picks through his mostly dysfunctional childhood, recalling being bullied at school, labeled gay (although straight) by his lesbian mother and her partner, longing for the physique of a Hitler youth (in spite of his Jewish heritage), and getting punched in the nose in New York City (for trying to keep a tourist from being scammed). As a father, he tries to love running (after eliminating every other sport activity), keep his family safe (even if his wife doesn't want him in charge of her medical decisions), and promote his book (with an ill-advised challenge to another writer). Intercut with his reminiscences are interviews with his mother, who is facing continuing surgeries, procedures, and setbacks with an enviable upbeat attitude. Black comes off as a nice guy with an appreciation for life's weird lessons and the ability to laugh at himself, valued traits when facing middle age. Set him on the recommended shelf beside Sedaris and Fey.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)