ME OF LITTLE FAITH

Black, a well-known writer and comedian, examines religion in the acerbic, irascible manner of his stand-up shows, starting with Judaism, the faith he was born into. He tends to reject organized religion but not spirituality. There's real feeling and thought in his cynicism and salty rants, but he's still, at times, laugh-until-you-cry funny. His delivery is important, if not crucial, to that effect—reading this book in print would not be the same. At the end of the program, he performs—with cowriter Mark Linn-Baker—a short play from 1981, which treats comedy as a religion. It's so amateurishly awkward and unfunny that it almost spoils the experience of the book. But that aside, there's both substance and strong humor here. W.M. 2009 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2009]