The Jerusalem Syndrome: My Life as a Reluctant Messiah (Paperback)

by Marc Maron (Author) "DURING the summer of 1998 my wife and I took a trip to Israel..." (more)
Key Phrases: magic powder, The Comedy Store, Philip Morris, Jerusalem Syndrome (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Named for a psychological condition that often afflicts visitors to the Middle East, The Jerusalem Syndrome provides a vivid and comedic sense of what it's like to believe you're a conduit for the voice of God. In this case, the affliction belongs to standup comic Marc Maron, whose brief, engrossing memoir recounts a lifelong parade of revelation and delusion. In New Jersey, in New Mexico, and in Israel (among many other places), Maron has found God in encounters with Beat poetry, cocaine, the Coca-Cola logo, and conspiracy theories. Brief chapters sketch Maron's picaresque adventures, all narrated in a relentlessly neurotic style: "I had just made a horrible but good decision." Maron's decidedly nontraditional perspective on Judaism--"Believing in the grand plan can take the edge off if you let it, because it really doesn't end well for anyone"--may strike some readers as blasphemous. To others, it will seem revelatory, and for the many in the middle, it will be both. --Michael Joseph Gross

From Publishers Weekly
Stand-up comic Maron, a regular on late-night TV, has adapted and expanded his off-Broadway show of the same name into a darkly funny memoir. Only after a particularly manic trip to Israel not "to get Jewy" but to visit a friend did Maron conclude that he had long had Jerusalem Syndrome, a psychological condition of mystical self-aggrandizement. After all, he'd always felt special; at Hebrew school in Albuquerque, he first recognized his "unique talent for driving people to the edge." In college, he found a spiritual focus for his desires: an obsession with the beats and an embrace of their rituals (bad poetry, mind-altering fluids). After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles and worked as a doorman at the Comedy Store ("a dark temple of fear and pain"), where he spent too much time with cocaine and the self-destructive genius comic Sam Kinison. He made pilgrimages to the Philip Morris headquarters and the Coca-Cola Museum, which reflected the "almost religious faith" of brand loyalty. He became a professional comic and, ultimately, "came out as a Jew on stage" and "eased into my anger over time." Finally, in Israel, carrying a camcorder to protect himself from "unmediated reality," Maron found himself on the brink of a spiritual crisis and moments of primal peace. Three years later, he reflects, "the cure... was essentially living life." He closes with a redemptive story about performing a benefit for his old Albuquerque synagogue: "Faith in the face of disappointment is only enhanced by laughter in the face of pain. That's my belief. That's my job." There are some narrative gaps here, but Maron is compelling enough to transcend them.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 194 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1st edition (October 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767908104
• ISBN-13: 978-0767908108
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #142,954 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and sweet, November 26, 2001

By	Eileen Galen (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In this fluid memoir Marc Maron manages to be self-aggrandizing and self-effacing at once, to good effect. He's got an eye and an ear for detail, and can comment wryly on marriage (for example) without ever being misogynistic. He writes that he was his Grandma Goldy's first and favorite grandchild - and that this designation and honor is sticking for life. You will laugh a lot, and admire Maron's ability to sometimes make lemonade out of lemons. In addition, Maron is more than willing to tell us about the silly, sad, and ridiculous jams he has gotten into - and how he found his way out. Maron is not only smart; he is kind and compassionate without ever being maudlin. This memoir, by an American comic with a deservedly bright future, is funny and sweet and well worth reading.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful, frank, intelligent, worthwhile, April 17, 2002

By	Margaret K. O'hora "margaretko" (Orange, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Read this book. I read it in a day. I went back and underlined the good parts. I told a number of friends about it. You don't have to know anything about Judaism or Israel to appreciate Maron's spiritual journey. It's the funniest thing I've ever purchased online.

15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A few really good parts, anyway., June 20, 2003

By	cloudnin (Nebraska, USA) - See all my reviews

I bought this because I think Marc Maron's standup comedy is hilarious. I caught a brief appearance of him on Comedy Central awhile ago and it took me several months to find out the name of the guy who made me laugh so hard. After finally finding out who he was, I found out he has a CD, Not Sold Out, and this book, The Jerusalem Syndrome. The CD is hilarious and I highly recommend it. Since no other CDs or a DVD of his standup is available (yet, anyway - fingers crossed!), I went ahead and got the book because he wrote it, not really knowing what it was about, with pretty high expectations.

The book is a fragmentary autobiography of some events in Maron's life, very little of which is directly related to his career as a standup comic.

The brief first chapter foreshadows the events that will occur later in the book during Maron's trip to Israel.

Chapters two through five cover Maron's life up to high school. I simply didn't find this stuff to be very interesting.

Chapter six covers Maron's college years, focusing on him adopting the Beat religion. The ideas and events in this chapter are very interesting, they're written about very well, and the chapter is very funny.

Chapter seven is another highlight of the book, covering the modest beginnings of his career as his comedian and his relationship (friendship is too strong of word) with Sam Kinison. Like the previous chapter the events here are interesting and funny, if not scary.

In chapter eight Maron recounts his foray into conspiracy theory, and how his credulity for that intellectual junk food led to him making a fool of himself. He does save some face, though, by turning his mind back on before the chapter is through. Maron does make a really good observation about conspiracy theory literature:

"The thing about conspiracy literature is that it's perfect for stupid people who want to seem smart and ground their hatred in something completely mystical and confusing, and it's good for smart people who are too lazy to do their homework. People can't argue with it without possibly implicating themselves."

What I don't get is, if this stuff really happened, how is it possible that he didn't learn from this and avoid the whole Jerusalem Syndrome thing, if that stuff really happened, too?

Chapter nine is hilarious, as Maron tells of his visits to a Philip Morris plant and the Coca-Cola museum. Maron gives great, detailed accounts of these visits and makes many humorous but true, if not obvious, observations.

Chapter ten provides a mish-mash of professional and personal experiences. I simply didn't think this stuff was very interesting or funny.

Chapters eleven through thirteen contain the events foreshadowed in the first chapter, including his trip to Israel and his experience with Jerusalem Syndrome. I don't know how much of this is true or exaggerated, but I thought most of this stuff was pretty stupid. Some of it is funny, but not in a very good way. Perhaps a Jewish person could relate to this more and find some value in it, but I could not.

Chapter fourteen is simply excellent. Maron returns home to do a benefit show for his old synagogue. He sees some friends and acquaintances from his youth and ends up helping out in a pretty big way. This concluding chapter is interesting and touching.

The Jerusalem Syndrome contains very little about Maron's career as a standup comic. There's a little bit about him getting his foot in the door as a comedian at The Comedy Store and then later a bit as he starts to make a name for himself with appearances on television. If you want more on the life and times of a standup comic, I don't think you can do any better than True Story, Bill Maher's fictional story of several standup comics trying to make careers for themselves during standup's golden years.

This book has some really good parts, but at least as many not so good parts. Perhaps the good parts make up for the not so good parts, but overall this was pretty disappointing considering how hilarious Maron's standup is. In any event, I'd rather just have more of Maron's standup comedy on CD or DVD.