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Review: Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me

Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me
Edited by Ben Karlin
Grand Central Publishing
February, 2008

Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me, a recent compendium of advice gleaned from failed relationships, might surprise you with it’s all-star cast of contributors. While many of the names might not be familiar, the projects with which they’ve been attached is quite an impressive list. Ben Karlin, the books editor, made a name for himself as the executive producer of The Daily Show and co-creator of The Colbert Report. He has a lot of ties to folks in the television industry, and many of these big names appear in ‘Things I’ve Learned’. It features pieces by Stephen Colbert, Bob Odenkirk, Patton Oswalt, Will Forte, Andy Richter, and David Wain just to name a few.

The works themselves range from comic strips and drawings to sincere pondering, interviews, or just some solid humor. With its vast array of authors and differing styles, the book has something for everybody, though the pieces meet with varying degrees of success. It’s surprisingly hit-and-miss for a book that gathers such talent. Stephen Colbert’s tale, whose sole gag is that it has been edited by his current wife is a particular disappointment. With his name first on the cover’s list of contributors, one expects a higher-caliber of humor, especially from someone as talented as Colbert. In general, those which don’t attempt to give any actual advice still tend to be the better of the collection.

Several of the pieces hope to enlighten their reader with trite advice which generally boils down to some common sense gem, often hammering home the old adage that “there’s plenty of fish in the sea”. In one of the book’s longest contributions Rodney Rothman, a former head writer of The Late Show with David Letterman transcribes an interview with his first kiss who turns out not to remember him. It winds up one of the dullest pieces in the collection and highlights its major problem-- that many of the stories don’t really matter to anyone but their author, also guilty of espousing repetitive advice about time healing all wounds and the insignificance of things that seemed dreadfully important when you were young.

If you’re looking to Things I’ve Learned purely for laughs you’ll be disappointed in it’s spotty content. If you’re looking to it for legitimate dating advice you’ll probably be letdown by its lack of any worthwhile help. Then again, if you’re looking to a compendium of short works by noted humorists for help with your love life you may be a lost cause. In the end it’s a mildly entertaining, if inconsistent, collection.

joe libutti





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