Based on a True Story: A Memoir (Unabridged)
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4.5 • 461 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Driving, wild and hilarious” (The Washington Post), here is the incredible “memoir” of the legendary actor, gambler, raconteur, and Saturday Night Live veteran.
When Norm Macdonald, one of the greatest stand-up comics of all time, was approached to write a celebrity memoir, he flatly refused, calling the genre “one step below instruction manuals.” Norm then promptly took a two-year hiatus from stand-up comedy to live on a farm in northern Canada. When he emerged he had under his arm a manuscript, a genre-smashing book about comedy, tragedy, love, loss, war, and redemption. When asked if this was the celebrity memoir, Norm replied, “Call it anything you damn like.”
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
If you’re already a fan of comedian Norm Macdonald’s martini-dry delivery and deadpan weirdness, you probably expect his contribution to the world of celebrity memoirs to be a little different. But pretty much nothing will prepare you for how strange—and how very, very dark—Macdonald’s satire of the genre gets. We’re talking, like, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by way of Charles Bukowski. In Macdonald’s fictionalized telling of his story, he’s a lifelong morphine addict with a dangerous gambling problem who treats even his closest friends as disposable playthings. It’s funny—filled with zingy one-liners and hilariously bizarre scenes—but it’s also edgy and prickly. As a reader, Macdonald plays up this darkness and the surrealism, at times sounding uncannily like William S. Burroughs. That gleefully malevolent spirit always lurked in the background of Macdonald’s stand-up, but Based on a True Story is where the late comedian really let his dark sense of humor run wild.
Customer Reviews
An Outstanding Book
Or so the Germans would have you believe
Audiobook is a Gift From Norm Himself!
I rarely listen to an audiobook twice, but I’m on my countless time listening to this one! I never thought Norm could make me cry with anything but laughter, but this audiobook gave me all the feels! If you know Norm, you know what parts of his story are real and what are fantasies, but you’ll also know that they’re all truth.
We miss you Norm! Thank you for narrating this audiobook yourself!
The Greatest Book I’ve Ever Experienced
Norm Macdonald was a good man. He was not Hollywood, though he lived amongst that world. He lived in a condo where he purchased the adjacent condo so his mom could live nearby. His convictions were not the “norm” for Hollywood, either. If you want an accurate idea of what type of person he actually was, don’t read this book. This book is absolutely NOT a memoir. It is a comic novel. I’ve read it so many times. But then I got the audiobook and everything changed. You need to hear this book from his actual voice. The timing is important and only Norm has the key to the proper timing. I have listened so many times to the audiobook,I have certain chapters memorized…like the one where Norm attempts to force himself sexually on an inmate during his 40 year stint in federal prison…..or the one where Norm makes a deal with Satan to win the heart of his one true love. The concept of this book is completely original. There’s a story within the story. It’s just extremely interesting and provides a vivid snapshot of Norm’s demented mind. He was a beautiful person. I hope he is happy wherever he is now.