Nice Try by Josh Gondelman
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Reviews
3.5 Stars
Best for:
Fans of gentle storytelling and humor.
In a nutshell:
Comedian and writer Gondelman tells stories from his life, usually with a humorous take, and often with a bit more self-awareness than one gets from such books.
Worth quoting:
N/A
Why I chose it:
I’m most familiar with Gondelman as a panelist on the NPR show Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me, and I follow him on BlueSky, but didn’t realize he had a book, so figured I would check it out.
Review:
This is a collection of essays that I enjoyed listening to, thought I can’t say that I am going to revisit it any time soon. Each story was mildly funny and/or heartfelt, and frankly this week I needed something that wasn’t all doom and gloom, but I didn’t find myself heavily relating to it or making a note to share it with my friends. It felt like a really well-crafted dessert.
Gondelman seems to put more thought into his words than some other comedians who write memoirs or collections of essays. This makes sense, as he’s also a writer, and is aware of the power of words. And he seems to put action behind his words – the chapter on watching the NFL to honor and feel close to his dying grandmother (and her memory after she passed) was balanced with him sharing his awareness of how problematic the NFL is, and actions he took in an attempt to counteract that.
Not that it was his goal, but after reading this, I feel fairly firm in my belief that I would enjoy just hanging out with him as a person. He seems genuinely interested in contributing positively to the world, and I think through his writing and comedy he’s doing that.
