Failure is an option

Failure is an option: an attempted memoir / H. Jon Benjamin, read by the author, 253 pgs.

Another celeb memoir where the path to success is revealed as ignoring good advice, mismanaging money and allowing your baby who just learned to crawl to eat shit.  And that last part is very literal.  Don't take your eye off the baby in the park is what we learn from this soul baring confessional.  But there are other lessons too.  Like how to manage your health, how to get a good deal on a motorcycle on ebay, and how to make a real impression on the guy who is valet parking your rental car.

Sometimes blazing a trail pays off and sometimes it doesn't.  Like the time you are the one student in a new academic program and it turns out your work is so bad the department tries to pawn you off on another program. Believe me, I can't tell it nearly as well as he can so do yourself a favor and listen to this one. The audio book is a step up from the regular text. After all, this guy *is* a famous voice actor.  So famous he sometimes gets free tea from the shop across the road from his studio.

Failure is an Option: An Attempted Memoir

Failure is an Option: An Attempted Memoir by H. Jon Benjamin, 256 pages.
Books by comedians are a weakness for me. If I enjoy the author's other work, ususally stand-up or comedic acting, then I want to read their funny little memoir even though I know that I am likely to be disappointed. This time I was pleasantly suprised. Benjamin, the voice of the title characters in both Archer and Bob's Burgers, is a clever and competent writer. He is very funny too. in this attempt at a memoir, Benjamin chooses to work thematically, linking episodes and milestones in his life to specific failures on his part; flaws in his character. He is, as I have mentioned, funny about this. He's not apologetic, and often offers bits of his philosophy of failure to encourage in others. He says early on, "this is a polemic in favor of failure. It's an assertion that failure is an option, and even, at times, a viable prescription for a better life".
Like many comedic memoirs, we're not getting a whole lot of personal details, unless they're funny bits of failure; there are (I presume) bunches of lies. But it is all funny. Benjamn's tales of failing at every aspect of life, from abandoning a sleepover during childhood, to watching tv at his neighbor's while the house was being robbed, to curling up in a ball instead of participating in a three-way while at college are all hilarious.

Addendum: Christa pointed out that I somehow missed the car-pooping scene in the book and I have corrected that. I think that I am prone to passages in books that are poop-heavy, and for that I will not apologize.