Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere
by Maria Bamford (Gallery, $29)
“The comedian Maria Bamford has always been willing to get uncomfortable while probing the deepest recesses of her psyche in search of laughs,” said Zack Ruskin in The Washington Post. That pattern holds in her debut memoir, a “true triumph” that generates plenty of humor while shining a light on mental illness. Bamford has been diagnosed with Bipolar II, and in three sections, the 53-year-old details her experiences in what she calls the “cults” of family, fame, and mental-health care, including many, many 12-step programs. “Some of her misadventures feel like anything but laughing matters. But it’s a testament to Bamford that she’s able to fill these pages with stories that are relatable and consistently hilarious, even when they’re harrowing.”
Calling Bamford an open book is an understatement, said Sean L. McCarthy in The Daily Beast. “How open is she?” She recalls fearing at age 10 that she might harm her family. She describes calling a suicide hotline at age 20. She talks of responding to a breakup by turning to bulimia. She reveals that she lost a lucrative gig as a spokesperson for Target in 2011 after criticizing the big-box retailer in a newspaper column, and describes being institutionalized for mentalhealth treatment three times that same year. Thanks to her time in Debtors Anonymous, she even shares exactly how much she was paid to write the book.
“Because so much of her stand-up is voice based imitation, I was concerned that a huge part of Bamford’s charisma would be missing on the page,” said Soraya Roberts in Defector. But her brand of comedy has always been “a hyper-absurdist selfdeprecating journey through mental illness,” and through digressions, all-caps statements, and a knack for blending such peppiness with “fly-by melancholy,” Bamford has managed to re-create her stand-up voice on the page. “The intonation, the rhythm, the landing, it’s all there.” So is the message that 12-step groups can be addictive because they make participants feel less alone. “Anyone who has had lifelong struggles with mental illness can understand that.”