When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?

September 20, 2004
Stand-up comedian, TV writer and silver screen actor Carlin gets louder, angrier and more inventive with each passing year, and following 2001's bestselling Napalm & Silly Putty
, he fires off searing satires, stinging social commentary and oblique one-liners in all directions. He targets Diane Sawyer's news delivery and the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, dopey athletes and cutthroat businessmen in wound up, jumpy paragraphs. Crudeness abounds ("Do you think Dale Evans ever yelled, 'Giddyup, Roy!' when she was getting fucked by Roy Rogers?"), but so does righteous indignation ("The energy criminals now refer to oil drilling
as oil exploration
. Instead of Mobil and Exxon, they'd rather you picture Lewis and Clark"). Some offbeat observations ("Wouldn't it be weird if they just buried you alive when you got to be sixty-five?") serve as springboards for mini-essays. But the theme, ultimately, is language. From the syntax of corporate rebranding (Patagonian tooth fish becomes Chilean sea bass) to the ethics of speechmaking ("Leader of the free world
. I don't know when we're going to retire that stupid shit, but personally I've heard it quite long enough"), bad grammar, marketing lingo, meaningless sentiments, political correctness ("America's newest form of intolerance") and euphemisms all come under serious attack, making this a surprisingly fitting companion—a sort of bad-ass cousin—to Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots & Leaves
. Agent, Jerold Hamza.
(Oct. 12)

Forecast:
Carlin's first book,
Brain Droppings, spent some 40 weeks on the
Times bestseller list;
Napalm didn't match that, but it was no slouch. Expect Carlin's latest to hit the lists as soon as his
Today show spot airs, if not before.

September 15, 2004
The latest book by longtime stand-up comic Carlin will undoubtedly join his previous "acts" in book form on the best-seller lists, so expect demand. Here are more of his irreverent, hilarious takes on contemporary social and political issues; as anyone who is familiar with his routines and books knows, Carlin doesn't let current notions of what is politically correct stand in the way of his taking a jab. So this series of short observations, one flung at the reader right after another, encompasses the Ten Commandments ("a padded list"), an anti-plastic surgery stance ("Ugliness should be a permanent condition"), body maintenance ("Every time you clip [a toenail], the little clipped part flies several feet away. You notice that?"), and euphemistic language (the first instance was being instructed to call his aunt's mole a "beauty mark"). The book is not meant to be read straight through but, rather, dipped into here and there. The language is explicit; therefore, this is not recommended for readers advocating propriety in speech on every occasion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)