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Summary: Funny, sad, heart-warming story of loss and survival.
Review: Julia Sweeney manages to do what seems impossible: to find hope and humour in a devastating situation, as she supports her brother's ultimately unsuccessful battle with cancer, then faces her own experience with cancer. This book is witty and frank, and it brought both tears and laughter as I read it. For anyone facing cancer, or struggling to cope with the disease in someone they love, this book will provide a cheering diversion. It's a great "waiting-room" read, too, and should be a staple in every cancer clinic and hospital library.
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Summary: An inspiring story of life's mysterious ways
Review: Julia Sweeney uses a breezy style--similar to a friend relating life stories over a cup of tea--to share her deepest sadness and remarkable courage in this emotional roller-coaster of a book. If you've ever felt alone when your world is crashing down, pick up this book and get inspired. I highly recommend this title
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Summary: Triumphant One Woman Show
Review: Julia Sweeney's battle with her brother's cancer, her mom and dad moving in, etc. make for a wonderful performance piece that earns its laughs and tears. By the time it was over (way too soon), I felt like I'd spent a lifetime with these people.
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Summary: A Funny, Touching, Poignant Book
Review: Julia Sweeney's God Said Ha! is a marvel of a book. The book is about Sweeney's life, and her struggles. One minte it's funny, the next is heartbreaking and touching. The real beauty of the book, and Sweeney's wonderful writing, is that the book can be heartbreaking AND funny at the same time. The book deals with her brother Michael's bout of cancer. He moved in and she took care of him, while maintaining her sucessful career. Then, in a horrib;e twist of fate, Julia learns that she has cervical cancer. The same kind of cancer that claimed the life of Sweeney's SNL peer Gilda Radner. Luckily, Julia survived. The book also touches on her parents, who are told about in a truly hysterical way. How many parents are like this?. The book is a swift read. It's very easy to get into and read in almost one sitting. I actually got to meet Ms. Sweeney on a few ocassions. My family babysat her niece and nephew. She came to my house as well. We were also lucky enough to be invited to the premiere of her 'Pat' movie, as well as a reading from the book by Sweeney herself. She is a sweet, lovely person. This book is sweet as well. A good read. Trust me.
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Summary: Sweet Monologue
Review: Julia Sweeney's one-woman show about the time in her life when both she and her brother were dealing with cancer has been filmed and is now on DVD. GOD SAID, HA! does not hide the fact that Julia Sweeney is performing a one-woman show. She stands on a stage and delivers the monologue as the audience watches and laughs.Julia Sweeney is best known as the asexual character "Pat" from Saturday Night Live. In monologue-mode here, Sweeney is much softer and sweeter than I imagined her to be after watching SNL. She's basically a nice Catholic girl and the stories she tells about her family are engaging and charming. Her manner of delivery is very matter-of-fact and a bit "stagey". But don't be turned off by that. The story she's telling has a payoff, and her message is honest and true. GOD SAID, HA! will not rock your world. But it is a slice of Julia Sweeney's life - both comedic and sad.
Rating:
Summary: Sweet Monologue
Review: Julia Sweeney's one-woman show about the time in her life when both she and her brother were dealing with cancer has been filmed and is now on DVD. GOD SAID, HA! does not hide the fact that Julia Sweeney is performing a one-woman show. She stands on a stage and delivers the monologue as the audience watches and laughs. Julia Sweeney is best known as the asexual character "Pat" from Saturday Night Live. In monologue-mode here, Sweeney is much softer and sweeter than I imagined her to be after watching SNL. She's basically a nice Catholic girl and the stories she tells about her family are engaging and charming. Her manner of delivery is very matter-of-fact and a bit "stagey". But don't be turned off by that. The story she's telling has a payoff, and her message is honest and true. GOD SAID, HA! will not rock your world. But it is a slice of Julia Sweeney's life - both comedic and sad.
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Summary: Transcends the genre
Review: Los Angeles is a place to which people frequently move to escape their families, only to spend their creative waking moments writing confessional one-person plays about the families they escaped. One might argue that the author need no longer venture in the jungles of Borneo or sail near islands with many-beaked birds to create a sense of adventure, as the intricate weirdness of the family refugee's story now eclipses any of the arcane knowledge one learns among exotic flora and fauna. Hence, in recent times, Angelenos have been "treated" to one woman shows about dysfunctional yet immensely bland family vacations, the unfashionable toes of former beaus, and other "look at me, look at me" trivia of the life-made-stale-through-self-involved-art. Talented writers have submerged their talents in the unnerving quest to unearth their own souls through confessionals that make one long for sitcoms. It's rather like life-as-cynical-pointless-two-hour-show, produced by NPR. God Said Ha! thus begins, for me, with the daunting task of mining a genre in which the first mine shaft might better, as far as I am concerned, never have been drilled. Julia Sweeney, the Saturday Night Live veteran, not to mention the fabled "Pat", tells us an annus horibilis story involving family cancer, and having one's own family move in with one. One might imagine that such a deeply confessional, "see my family, aren't we weird and funny?" piece would suffer from the same defects of would-be conceptual performance art that have caused many others who know (or should know) better to lose their way. But things ain't that simple--this play works. Although Ms. Sweeney has converted her family into a sort of set piece with the usual "god aren't we funny and poignant" devices, one must admit that the story is almost always poignant and sometimes quite funny. God Said Ha! is a fine play, and converts into a fine film. There's no effort to "cinematize" the play--it's a performance. Julia Sweeney's performance is simple, unadorned, and, if she sometimes asks us to smirk a bit about her mother, she also manages to deliver the most wrenching lines with a sense of involved detachment better than any trick of delivery. This is a film worth seeing. This is a film that argues that the problem with the confessional one person play may not always be the format--and that the right material can make for a good show.
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Summary: Monology down Pat!
Review: Most people are more aware of Julia Sweeney as an alumnus of "Saturday Night Live" rather than as an NPR contributor ("This American Life"). Sweeney has emerged as a smartly funny and engaging monologist during her NPR stint; quite a contrast to the goofy comic TV characters she is best known for. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you're puzzled by the term "monologist", or you're expecting this to be a sequel to "It's Pat!", well--then you've probably never heard of Spaulding Gray! "God Said Ha!" is, in fact, quite reminiscent of Spaulding Gray's "Gray's Anatomy"; both monologues are based on the trials and tribulations involved with serious illness, either your own or that of someone very close to you. Sweeney manages to keep the humor and the sentiment nicely balanced, so you'll find yourself "laughing through the tears", as they say. No car crashes or hot sex, but plenty of the comedy and drama of of our everyday lives!
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Summary: Loved the stage show, had to get the book
Review: Since I've had cancer, lots of people give me books on the topic. It's not often I actually read one all the way through, and the only one I really LOVED was "Bald in the Land of Big Hair" by Joni Rodgers, because it's really hilarious and not about cancer so much as it's about the rollercoaster of life. This book is a close second to "Bald" -- funny and able to be really cool about life and death issues. I couldn't stand that Pat skit on SNL, but Julia is a wonderful writer!
Rating:
Summary: Loved the stage show, had to get the book
Review: Since I've had cancer, lots of people give me books on the topic. It's not often I actually read one all the way through, and the only one I really LOVED was "Bald in the Land of Big Hair" by Joni Rodgers, because it's really hilarious and not about cancer so much as it's about the rollercoaster of life. This book is a close second to "Bald" -- funny and able to be really cool about life and death issues. I couldn't stand that Pat skit on SNL, but Julia is a wonderful writer!
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