This has a happy ending, a long-term remission of chronic severe depression and anxiety, a successful podcast and comedy career, a happy marriage, and now a book. Gulman is smart, very funny and wincingly honest. (I kept thinking when he was talking about his sister-in-law's family and how they got rich knocking off designer shoes that next Passover will be very uncomfortable. Or she is already an ex-sister-in-law so it is okay.) Notwithstanding all of that, there is plenty of tragedy in this book. Gulman's anxiety and sense of otherness started young and plagued him. He finally "hit bottom" in his mid-40's. moving back in with his mother after a series of hospitalizations. But like the basketballs he loves, he hit bottom and bounced back up. I learned a lot about what goes on in this man's head, and I suspect a good deal if it is not far removed from what goes in the heads of many other people with similar chemistry. This is a brutally honest depiction of living with and fighting mental illness and of losing some battles but thankfully not the war. I imagine this will be inspiring for others with similar illnesses and the people who love them. And did I mention it was funny? ( )

Gary Gulman has one of the most hilarious comedy routines I've ever watched, about the committee that came up with uniform two-character US postal code abbreviations. Despite that, I'm really struggling to be entertained by this memoir. I originally considered bailing at 15%, but kept on when I realized who he is. I just can't go on—I'm bailing at 27%.