Digging Up Mother: A Love Story

 Shirley J.             Adult Non-Fiction         The Memoir of a stand-up comic and the mother he loved        Digging Up Mother: A Love Story by Doug Stanhope     336 pages        

A most irreverent telling of Doug Stanhope's life and deep love for his mother that neither ever let a good line or funny bit go by.   As Doug's brother says, "It's only funny if you actually do it."   There is so much to process here.   Much laugh out loud stuff happens that is so bizarre it sounds like it is fiction but its not.  Many of the things Doug, his mother, his brother, his friends and wives/girlfriends do and say is beyond  belief.   You really have to read this and brace yourself to understand the lengths Doug goes to for a laugh.  ie. he paid $600 to Earl Scheib to paint his neighbor's truck metallic purple while she was out of town, he was only supposed to move the truck for her on street cleaning day and oh yeah, he purposefully let her car get a ticket for not moving it then he and his girlfriend waited to see what reaction his neighbor would have.   That is one of the cleanest, non-blasphemous, shareable stories you'll find in these pages.  He also keeps a photo in his wallet of him kissing his dead father's head while his Dad is stretched out on the sofa so when anyone shows him a picture of their new baby he can show them how the story ends.  That is Doug Stanhope on his lighter, brighter side, he definitely has a much, much, much, much, darker side, and while he can be so wrong and so funny he often crosses the line, no he pole vaults over a morass, an abyss if you will, of really politically incorrectness that if you aren't totally put off by him, you might feel guilty for laughing at the things he says and does.   If you are anti strong language -DON'T READ THIS BOOK, if you are anti-drugs - DON'T READ THIS BOOK, if you are anti any kind of bad taste DON'T EVEN BE IN THE SAME ROOM WITH THIS BOOK.   But if you dare, open it, there is a spell cast on it and you won't be able to stop reading it even though your eyes will be singed, your mouth will drop, you will mutter to yourself "He did not just say that," and your mind might actually be fried by the time you get to the end.   There should be a warning label on this book, seriously.    If you are at all religious avoid this book.    It is funny but because it is also blasphemous I have a hard time justifying recommending it, but, it is so outrageous and many parts worth the read, that I will say this is a book for the most open-minded of highly mature adults, there are so many references to bad things I would not want young adults exposed to.    It is a nuclear blast of humor.