November 11, 2024
Book of Mormon and Frozen actor Gad (PictureFace Lizzy) makes his adult debut with a funny, if occasionally brash, memoir-in-essays. In cheeky, conversational prose, Gad threads reflections on his acting career with reminiscences about his Florida childhood, his parents’ divorce, his complicated feelings about his Jewish heritage, and his transformative experiences with marriage and fatherhood. Punctuating the proceedings are chapters by Ron Howard and Mel Brooks, as well as goofy proverbs, or “Gadisms” (“Dreams can become reality and reality can become dreams... unless your dreams are about being bitten by a bat. That’s a sign of bad luck and/or rabies”). All the playful self-aggrandizement (Gad freely admits that his “favorite subject” is “me!”) can grate—readers won’t struggle to understand why Gad’s friends and acquaintances have chastised him for his arrogance—but he tempers the bluster with real vulnerability, especially in wrenching sections on his body image issues and struggles with sex and alcohol. Through it all, Gad’s toughness and insistence on seeing adversity as “a friend instead of an enemy” makes it easy to root for him. Readers who know Gad for his clownish stage and screen antics will find surprising depth here. Photos. Agent: Anthony Mattero, CAA.