Funny, honest and (sometimes) familiar. ( )

I'd liked the Birbiglia stand-up I'd heard and liked his TAL contributions. This was too much and then had "poetry". ( )

Laugh-out-loud funny, introspective, and observant.

See also: Someone Could Get Hurt by Drew Magary

Quotes

We joke about thing we are most anxious about to defuse the anxiety of the actual threat. (70)

What does it mean to be a decent neighbor?
I think part of it is just listening to people in the context in which they intend their words. (73)

We all ask for things in ways we understand and expect other people to understand, instead of entering their perspective. (90-91)

"An Infant Reaches"
An infant reaches for something (I don't know what)
--pushes it farther away and cries in frustration each
time she reaches without realizing she is crawling
for the first time.
She is like her father. (161)

I think sometimes comedians are able to tell the truth about things other people won't talk about. (192)

"The Now-Clock"
The now-clock is the clock of a toddler in which
every number is replaced by the word "now" and
the hands of the now are always pointed directly
at the now or between two nows. (217) ( )

This was an absolute delight to listen to. I was drawn to this book based on the blurb and several conversations I've had with my girlfriends about why seemingly happy relationships implode after the first or second child. Our best theory has been that most men simply have no clue how much their wives will change after birth. Sterling K. Brown has actually talked about this publicly and I was excited to hear what Mike Birbiglia would have to say about it.

I wish more men would talk about how neglected and alone they feel after watching their wives form this deep bond with a new human, as they see nearly all of her focus go toward someone else. Men need to be better prepared! Birbiglia didn't want children because he knew it would change his life. His wife naively told him that their lives wouldn't change. I don't think Birbiglia really believed her. But still, I see women today make the same mistake. They fantasize about being a different mom, a cool mom, a hot mom, a totally chill person who doesn't lose any part of her identity to motherhood. But, a mom is a mom and no woman can know exactly who she'll be after she's been flooded with the hormones that come with birth.

It's a really hard transition and I do think it can be hard for men as well because they're not physically attached, they're not getting the hormone boost that refocuses a woman's attention. This book really explains how Birbiglia and his wife dealt with the transition with love and humor and honesty. His wife's poetry interspersed with all of Birbiglia's comedic writing is so beautiful as is her voice and in a way the back and forth between them is its own love story. Super beautiful book. I borrowed this on a whim from the library and am excited to pick up a physical copy for my bookshelves. ( ( )

It's essentially everything he based his tour The New One (which we saw) and I already know everything contained in the book.