Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss
The Early Days of SNL from Someone Who Was There

True story: I was in the midst of reading Tom Davis' memoir when our phone rang... and it was a campaigner from the Midwest PAC trying to raise support for his former partner in comedy, U.S. Senator from Minnesota Al Franken, of all things. I couldn't resist telling her that I was reading this book,......more

For a professional writer - much less an award winning professional writer - I have never read a more amateurish book. The final chapter - which you would think would be some sort of conclusion or catharsis - is literally just a description of random news stories he has pinned to his bathroom walls......more

I liked this book because I was interested in hearing more about Franken and Davis, the early years of SNL, and especially about their connection to the Grateful Dead through the years. It was those threads that kept my interest, despite the fact that the writing was all over the place, with stories......more

An interesting but ultimately unsatisfying memoir. There really isn't any narrative, it is all a series of anecdotes. Each chapter is essentially stand-alone. By itself that wouldn't be too much if a problem, but I found the character introductions to be tedious after a while. For instance, I got re......more

Great book, especially the end. I enjoyed his correspondences with Franken the most. It was a little hard to follow at times because it was far from chronological, but I reckon that was the artist in him emerging...or the years of acid.......more