The tragic story of the life that is Artie Lange. A gifted yet troubled comedian that seems to blow whatever success comes his way. At the rate he keeps blowing his chances Lange will eventually lose any shot at continued mainstream success, his life or both. I wonder why anybody keeps giving him a chance since he seems to burn bridges. ( )

Book Overview
This is the autobiography of Artie Lange -- perhaps best known as a member of The Howard Stern Show, which he joined in 2001. He was also on MADtv during the first season and has had roles in movies such as Dirty Work and Beer League. He is also a stand-up comedian who performs all over the country.

Born into a working-class Italian family in Union, New Jersey, Mr. Lange was a "typical" American kid -- obsessed with sports, girls ... and comedy. At age 18, his beloved father suffers a fall and becomes a quadriplegic. This family tragedy pushes Lange over the edge, and he begins to dull his pain with alcohol and eventually drugs. Although his addiction develops and blossoms over the years, he pulls himself together enough to escape the confines of a the working class life he was "meant for" and throws himself into pursuing a comedy career.

Despite his own best efforts to sabotage himself, he finds success and lands a role as a cast member on MADtv. But the money and the pressure start to take its toll, and Lange turns to cocaine to help him deal. He eventually spirals out of control and is let go from the cast and forced into rehab. He eventually puts himself together, scores a film role and then ... falls into drugs again -- this time heroin. He somehow lands a spot on The Stern Show -- which has a rabid fan following (my husband included). This leads to another movie and, over time, more struggles with drugs. Although he recently did a USO tour in Afghanistan (which he discusses in the book), my husband tells me he continues to struggle with his heroin addiction but somehow still manages to do the radio show each day.

My Thoughts
You may be wondering why I read this book. Primarily, I read it because my husband is a huge Howard Stern and Artie Lange fan and preordered this book -- something I have never seen him do before. (He is pretty much a non-reader -- although I am trying very hard to change that.) In an effort to show interest in what my husband was excited about reading and to see what was so darn funny about Mr. Lange, I decided I would read this book to find out a little more about this guy.

I will admit, the first parts of the book -- although lewd and crude -- were not too bad. There is a section on how Mr. Lange lost his virginity (to a prostitute's sister) that was actually quite amusing -- if not a bit raunchy. And the way he writes about his father and their shared love of the Yankees was quite touching and gave me a bit of an insight into the male mind. And there are some stories about his parents and their love of Frankie Valli that were relatively enjoyable. But once the book shifted to his comedy career and subsequent drug addiction, I got less and less interested the more I read.

Frankly, I don't think the book is that well-written, and Mr. Lange didn't strike me as the amazingly funny storyteller he supposedly is. But, then again, I don't think I am his target audience either. I found the sections on his drug problems to be very repetitive and unappetizing (as they rightfully should be). However, rather than draw me into his struggles, I just started to get a little bored and began checking to see how many pages were left. And, because there is no "moment of truth" where Mr. Lange is able to kick his drug problem, I wasn't left with an uplifted feeling either. In fact, when he mentions that he plans to write another book, my immediate thought was "Well, I hope you live long enough to complete it."

My Final Recommendation
I think this book is primarily for fans of Artie Lange and Stern Show fans. It might also be of minimal interest to readers who want to understand the mind of an addictive personality. However, I'm thinking there are better books on this topic, and I would hesitate to recommend it based on that. Bottom line: If you're a Lange or Stern fan, you'll probably like this book. Everyone else: take a pass. ( )

I knew nothing about Artie Lange before I received this book as part of Early Reviewers. I always enjoy reading memoirs so I requested it without much background knowledge. When I found out her was a comic, and a rather crude one at that I didn't know if I would enjoy the book very much.

The book stays true to form and might not appeal to a very wide audience because of the crude language and humour in places. That being said I actually had quite a bit of sympathy for Artie, he has clearly faced a lot of struggles in life and it still figuring out how to overcome those struggles. Unfortunately it feels like sometimes Artie himself doesn't even know how many problems he has.

The book is a fairly quick read and is quite funny in places but I agree with other reviewers who said it was full of name dropping. It started to get quite annoying as the book progressed, I know these people have played a role in his life but it seems like it didn't add much and that it was simply a desperate attempt to seem important.

Overall this book was okay. If you like Artie, or are a fan of Howard Stern, then I suggest giving this book a read, otherwise there are much better memoirs out there. ( )

Artie Lange's autobiography, Too Fat to Fish, is a revealing look at a comic I really knew nothing about. My knowledge of Lange previous to reading this book was limited to a celebrity roast I saw on Comedy Central that he took part in.

Lange's ability to unabashedly tell his story moved me. To me, it seemed from his stories that Lange is a run-of-the-mill guy in awe of his own success, and stuck in the cycle of addiction.

Yeah, it was a bit name-droppy, and some of the logic used by Lange for his addictions seemed like a bit of a cop-out, but Lange's honesty about his life is refreshing. ( )

Pretty standard in terms of celebrity memoirs...if you like Artie Lange or Howard Stern you probably will like the book, but if not there's not too much to draw you in. ( )