The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee, By Sarah Silverman

In book form, Silverman's anecdotes fail to stand up

Sarah Silverman's memoir of being a bedwetting Jewish girl growing up in New Jersey, practising for her future career as a comedian by swearing and shocking the adults, is not as funny as one would like it to be.

The stories about what was allowed past the censor when writing the scripts for The Sarah Silverman Show are interesting, and there is one killer anecdote: Silverman's grandmother, visiting a Catholic neighbour in New Hampshire, saw a picture of the Madonna and Child and asked, in all innocence: "Is this you and your mother?" This material would no doubt be funnier performed as stand-up; as a book, it feels laboured and over-extended.