As much as H. Jon Benjamin’s collection of 21 personal essays, “Failure Is An Option,” is written as a book of failures, it’s also a book about documenting successes.

The chapter “The Robbery (and How I Failed to Stop One)” could have been reframed as “How I Survived A Robbery.” The chapter “How I Failed as a New Father” could have been called “How I didn’t manage to kill my kid.” And the chapter about how Benjamin failed at “pretty much everything as a kid,” including how to learn a musical instrument, could have been titled “How I made the very experimental 2015 jazz album, ‘Well, I Should Have Learned How To Play Piano.'” Meanwhile, the book’s two-sentence second final chapter, “How I Failed at Differentiating My Two Characters of Bob and Archer” (because to be honest, that’s what you know Benjamin for and it’s probably why you’re reading this book), could have been called “How I became a very successful voice actor in two almost-decade-long franchises.”

Even the book’s title — “Failure Is An Option” — could have been renamed to something along the lines of “How I Wrote And Published My First Book” — becoming that self-help guide to wannabe authors.

The secret: You have to fail at writing your first book before you can succeed at it.

Rephrased: You have to try.

(Or try to convince others to do it for you — which Benjamin does with varying degrees of success. Two chapters include painful cringeworthy excerpts of his correspondences with history professors he tries to con into writing portions of the book for him.)

“Failure Is An Option” is filled with embarrassments. You almost* (coda to this later) feel bad for the guy. But his life’s most humiliating experiences — including when his child ate dog poop in front of strangers, when he got his brother-in-law’s father to write a failed pilot filled with unnecessary Viagra jokes for him, and when he had diarrhea and pooped in the front seat of a rental car while driving to a fancy hotel with valets — are the book’s biggest and funniest successes. If you only have time to read one chapter of this book while waiting in a store where this book could be purchased, skip to Chapter 20: “The Flood: A Waster of Waters Ruthlessly (How I Failed My Rental Car).”

Regardless on whether Benjamin’s exercise in recounting failure is a failure, failure is the bread and butter of stand-up acts and often makes for a better story than success.

“So much of my life has been a success of small personal failures, and still, I will be remembered for all the good fortune,” Benjamin wrote.

“Failure Is An Option” is really a book about opportunity: squeezing those lemons into lemonade. It just depends on how you look at the glass.

Benjamin’s glasses are mildly funny. But that’s why we pay him to make us laugh.

* Warning: If you were hoodwinked into purchasing and reading “Failure Is An Option” in its entirety, you might walk away feeling as if you were conned, with the sneaking suspicion that somewhere out there, Benjamin’s laughing at how he got some poor schmucks to pay enough Benjamins for his diarrhea-filled pages.

Disclaimer: I received a free eARC of “Failure Is An Option” from NetGalley in exchange for this honest review.

Hilarious and well worded. Flew through this in no time at all and was an interesting look at H Jon's flops and how he recovered. Formatting was a little weird when sent to kindle but got over that quickly.

H. Jon Benjamin is hilarious and anyone who enjoys his work will love this book. I look forward to listening to this in audiobook form so I can hear his words from him!

I could NOT get into this one.. The book has been described to me as a "nontraditional memoir" - Benjamin's voice is definitely non-traditional. Ditto the format and style. That's not necessarily a deal- breaker for me, as long as I can find something to relate to. Unfortunately, I could not here... To me the writing felt grating and a bit much, like he was trying too hard to be shocking and startling and make a statement. That may be his voice; I wasn't familiar with him before this book, so suspect I'm just not his target audience.

There are lots of humor books out there in which the author basically brags about his social awkwardness and general lifeskills incompetence. This is another one, neither better nor worse than average.

H. Jon Benjamin is a terrifically funny voice actor, and his first book proved he can be just as funny without a script. His memoir "Failure Is An Option", recounts several failures throughout Benjamin's life. Failure is a subject that most people would shy away from, but Benjamin runs towards it with open arms. Benjamin's voice is one of the most distinct voices on television, and it was impossible to read this without that voice shining through. He is a terrific storyteller, and an equally terrific joke writer, and this book is able to highlight both of these skills. While "Failure Is An Option" in Benjamin's life, this book is nowhere close to being a failure.

Pleasantly offbeat. I wish that I had waited to listen to this on audiobook, but I often had Benjamin's voice reading aloud in the back of my mind. For the most part, the bits between the personal experiences of each chapter aren't particularly funny and feel like filler, plus I would have preferred more content devoted to Benjamin's experiences in showbiz. However, I liked getting a glimpse into his childhood and personal life, and admired the overall book's theme that failure is an essential part of any successful life. Benjamin's horrific and incredibly detailed experience with his rental car on the way to Pasadena had me simultaneously cringing in secondhand embarrassment and laughing out loud, and I love his bald acknowledgment that the voices that he does for Bob Belcher and Sterling Archer are exactly the same. Not the best celebrity memoir that I've ever read, yet it has its moments.

I have been a fan of H. Jon Benjamin since he was Coach McGuirk on Home Movies - hell, even before that, when he was voicing the son of Dr. Katz. What I discovered in reading this book is that my fandom has <i>definitely</i> not been misplaced.

In a series of short essays, Benjamin recounts all the ways in which he has failed: at having a threesome, at getting academics to write chapters for him, at throwing a super-cool disco bar mitzvah, at building shelves, and more. The final essay, on failing to make it to a restroom before succumbing to horrid diarrhea in his rental car, is one of the most disgusting and hilarious things I have read in years.

Even if you don't know anything about Benjamin, this book is funny enough to stand on its own.

Fans of Benajmin's work will thoroughly enjoy this memoir in essays. With his trademark apathy and sarcasm, Benjamin tells stories of times throughout his life where he failed, sometimes fantastically at whatever he was attempting.

Topics range from mildly crude to outright vulgar, crossing the blurry comedic line causing the reader to ask "He really can't be serious here, right?" I laughed out at some point in almost every chapter, and in more than one instance I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.

What I appreciate most, besides the laughs, is Benajamin's spin on failure. Sure, he's making fun of himself, but he makes a good point: So much emphasis is placed on success in our society, we forget that failure is often "a springboard towards something better."

He's got a voice that is instantly recognizable...because he's America's current dad, Bob Belcher, but H. Jon Benjamin is so much more than that.

Jon is full of witty commentary and stomach problem. He's anxiety ridden and openly talks about sex and drugs.

This isn't a book for everyone, but it was good enough for me.

**Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to review this one!**

H. Jon Benjamin, someone we know for voicing Bob from Bob's Burgers and Archer in Archer. I remember him back in his first voice gig as the lazy son in Dr. Katz on Comedy Central. He's really made a name for himself at this point.

His point in this book is that his life has basically been full of failures. Even the voice work is a result of him trying to avoid getting a real job. He just kind of kept falling into things. And some of the gags he talks about don't seem that funny to me, so you end up agreeing with him...how the hell did he get here?

But here he is, and this book was pretty funny in a lot of parts. He also strikes me as kind of a jerk, more often than not. But he doesn't deny it, so I guess it evens out. I enjoyed it more than I disliked him, a successful memoir overall.