Based on a True Story: Not a Memoir

If you don't understand the author or his comedy this is still a good buy but not as a serious autobiography.It takes the unreliable narrator trope and turns it up to an absurd, hilarious and ultimately comedic effect.There's great prose and some nice aphorism as well as a rare surrealness to this book that leaves a strong impression.

Other books are simply not as good

Genuinely one of the funniest books I have ever read. The content is much more amusing if you are familiar with Norm's career and his video podcast series with Adam Eget although it is not required in order to enjoy this brilliant piece of work. I'm so glad I have discovered Norm and his work in recent times. Here's hoping book #2 comes out way in the not too distant future!

A good read. Very funny. For my money though, an actual memoir by Norm MacDonald would be funnier. Lots of people say it reads like Russian literature. Not really. It has a long shaggy dog story about a moth in a podiatrsit's office which does, but overall it reads more like Spike Milligan.It's good and I'm glad I read it but the praise heaped on it by other reviewers seems a bit much. Norm is for my money the funniest man who ever lived. His podcast and his stand up are sublime. The book is good but I think something less contrived could be even better.

Great work from a first time novelist. Norm is a genius across the board. He must write more. A profoundly funny, important comedy novel, beautifully written, clearly considered carefully, meandering delightfully like only Norm can (without ever losing focus), and all of it over too soon.

What you would expect from Norm...funny as hell and flashes of pathos that hide between the jokes. Highly recommend for fans new and old. The title is a clue to what to expect, this isn't your ordinary memoir but hilarious and a great read.

Unputdownable for me. Read it in a day. The funniest book i've ever read. God bless Norm Macdonald.

I think I just read it with this book. Seriously.Did he have a ghost writer, or did he not? I don't know. It was weird, expectantly, but was it too weird?I did laugh. A lot, in fact. I was also baffled at times too. Still, I enjoyed what I read.This guy comes from a place in Ontario that I haven't even heard of, and I live in Ontario too. I found that funny, but it also prompts me to want to see more of my beautiful province.Do I feel like I read a memoir? Not in the least. Even when he discussed actually events in his career, they all drifted to something else all together and somehow it all became about Adam.So did I love it? Not really. I didn't dislike it either. It just was.... well, I don't know what it was, but it was.