Too Fat To Fish
by Artie Lange, with Anthony Bozza
Spiegel & Grau
Howard Stern sidekick Artie Lange’s on-air genius lies in downplaying his obvious intelligence while playing up his working-class Jersey roots (he is now a multi-millionaire), his Romanesque appetites (he is now around 300 pounds) and his complicated relationship with his own death wish (on any given day, he may or may not be sober). He is such a fascinating character, so sharp and quick-witted, that it is genuinely shocking to find his book lazily filled with warmed-over anecdotes that have been related, often and with more vigor, on the Stern show. These oft-told stories, delivered to such hilarious effect on the air, here are unbearably depressing: The specter of his father’s death, the cheap sex, the multiple arrests, the food comas, the half-hearted stint in the psych ward. Still, it’s in the Top 10, and Lange has been signed to a sequel. Here’s hoping the material is fresher – and funnier. – MC