Book Review - Last Words

There are some books that a person knows going in that he or she is going to like. This may be because it's by a favored author or it covers a topic that the reader simply can't get enough of. In the case of Last Words by George Carlin with Tony Hendra, I knew before I even finished reading the introduction that this would go down as one of my all-time favorite books and, now that I've finished it, this certainty has become reality!

Needless to say, George Carlin is one of my two modern heroes (the other is Pete Seeger). As I've written in this space before, I consider Carlin to be the social conscience of his generation. He possessed the uncanny ability to make me -- and millions of others too -- laugh uproariously while simultaneously thinking very deep thoughts. He was a social critic, philosopher and comedian all rolled into one.

Last Words is not your typical autobiography. While he does trace the trajectory of his life from the streets of New York to all his various stops along the way, he offers a running comedic insight not unlike his later stand-up routines. I often found myself laughing, crying and nodding my head within the same paragraph!

If so-called "bad words" are not your cup of tea, then I strongly urge you NOT to read this book. Your sensibilities will be shocked beyond belief every time you see "Fuck" or "Shit" used and both words are used quite frequently.

If delving into the machinations of a known druggie bother you, then again this book is not for you. Carlin goes to great lengths to detail his many years of steady use of, shall we say, illicit substances.

Hallucinations could come not just for the drug [cocaine] alone, but from starving for days on end. I'd stay up as much as six days and not eat, or eat only morsels of food. Fasting, in fact...Even without visions, there was the deadly treadmill of staying awake and taking more drugs to try to put off the time when you would finally have to go to sleep and running out and going through all the rigamorale of getting more and taking it and putting off sleeptime and then realizing that you couldn't go any further.

Amidst the talk of drugs, the signposts that marked his career, family matters and general observations, the book is marked by textual snippets of many of his most famous comic routines, including the classics A Place for My Stuff and the 7 Words You Can't say on TV.

But what I enjoyed most about this wonderful book was the opportunity to get to understand how Carlin went about developing his craft. In the latter chapters, he turns his attention more toward his life philosophy and how he fashioned these insights into a package to induce others to laugh and think. In many ways, his methodology has a Zen and Taoist-like quality to it.

...when you're in front of an audience and you make them laugh at a new idea, you're guiding their whole being for the moment. No one is ever more herself or himself than when they really laugh. Their defenses are down. It's very Zen-like, that moment. They are completely open, completely themselves when that message hits the brain and the laugh begins. That's when new ideas can be implanted.

If you're a thinker who enjoys to laugh or a laugher who doesn't mind thinking, I can think of a no better book to recommend. It's been said that laughter is the best medicine and the musings of one George Carlin will provide you with an endless prescription -- a legal one at that!

(Note: This probably won't be the last time I write about Carlin. There are a few quotes from the book that I may utilize as a springboard for some later posts.)