Maria Bamford straddles that metaphorical line between (comic) genius and madness. She is full of insecurities and neuroses, but she is funny. As funny as anyone on the standup circuit today. So I looked forward to her first book. Like almost all first books, Sure I’ll Join Your Cult is autobiographical. But this one is a total purge. It can be cringeworthy and uncomfortable, and for a lot of people it might be too much. But its saving grace is that it is also funny. Throughout. In a Maria Bamford way.

Bamford not only wears her cognitive defects openly, she employs them for her comedy. She is not constrained by the boring rules of polite society, medical privacy, or human decency. She is defective, admits it, wears it openly, and makes great bits from it. She is as close to a female Jonathan Winters as I have ever seen. She contorts her face to create characters. She gives them unique voices, regional accents and stereotypical cadences, just like Winters did.

She also entertains, just like he did. She will perform for anyone she encounters while out, or invite them into her home for a performance. So she, like he, is always On, always honing her craft. The only difference is in the degree of improv. Where Jonathan Winters could wing it with any prop or even just a prompt, Bamford is highly practiced and often very polished. She rehearses (and videos) in front of mirrors, performs for family, neighbors, friends and total strangers, but it is her act she is performing, tweaking and improving, not one-off improvs that are spouting from her head in realtime. This is in no way a criticism, but an observation. Bamford is not Jonathan Winters. She is her own creation.

The book is an endless merry-go-round of mental disabilities, from obsessively parking illegally to being unable to look people in the eye, to hand tremors and various flavors of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, OCD. She has been in and out of psych wards (just like Winters), dealt with all kinds of therapists and taken so many pills she can’t remember them all (though she tries to list them). She describes her persona as: “I eat breakfast from the bottom of my purse, I skim and react to texts, I yell apologies while crashing into your car. I’m fun to watch from a distance in that I give you a sense of superiority.” Having a stable relationship with another unstable person is the accomplishment of a lifetime that she is fiercely (and justifiably) proud of. Beats all those years of one night stands with total strangers.

But this is America, and who wouldn’t be neurotic when for example, she was named Employee of the Month at Nickelodeon corporate, and then fired the same month. And then asked back to do voiceovers.


The main theme in the book is the variety of programs she has signed up for in order to cope with her self-recognized defects. She calls these services cults. They all seem to have 12 step programs, forcing participants to daily publicly admit their failures in a circle of other failures, and sponsors to talk them through the day and stay on the program, all of which contribute to her description of them as social bulimia. There are Dale Carnegie courses, Alcoholics Anonymous, Debtors Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Recovering Couples Anonymous, and so on. She tries them all, and really works to keep going with them. Because she recognizes she is weak, defective, and gullible. Gullible to the daily scams of American life. They do not stop her from being intricately observant of the most trivial details. Quite possibly, they enhance those abilities. And she leverages them into great comedic bits.

She comes to the programs through the realization she is not alone: “I thought that I must be an unfathomable outlier (as we all thought we were prior to the internet),” she says. But she is hardly alone, as 25% of Americans suffer from some condition of mental disability.

The book reflects her rollercoaster. It swings wildly from plain text to all caps, periods of italics and unexplained bolds. She inserts icons to denote old material being recycled, striking lightening for backlash due to writing about the secret 12 step programs, a money bag to denote financial information that really shouldn’t be there (like her income statement to show where the money goes – and why she needs to work more), and “recipes” that conclude most of the chapters. In other words, as out of the ordinary as she could make it. Whether all that succeeds or not is debatable. As she warns up front – this is not going to win a Pulitzer Prize.

Her comedic skill and polish can be seen any time in a nearly hourlong sit down standup special she made as a Christmas gift for her fans, about ten years ago. With the admonishment that viewers might have seen some of these bits before, she warns to remember: this is her Christmas gift to viewers, so just deal with it. She sits crosslegged on her couch doing a delightful range of characters using her face and hands, along with voices and attitudes. Great timing. Great flow. Great variety. Her characters include her obsessively nailbiting but fast-talking sister, and an office co-worker whose whole life is centered on possession of her stapler. It is a remarkable demonstration of range and discipline, without props, a set or an audience. It is her highest achievement in comedy, from my perspective. Just search bamford christmas at youtube. Then buy the book for why she is this way.

David Wineberg

(Sure I’ll Join Your Cult, Maria Bamford, September 2023)

If you liked this review, I invite you to read more in my book The Straight Dope. It’s an essay collection based on my first thousand reviews and what I learned. Right now it’s FREE for Prime members, otherwise — cheap! Reputed to be fascinating and a superfast read. And you already know it is well-written. https://www.amazon.com/Straight-Dope-learned-thousand-nonfiction-ebook/dp/B07Z48VQMT/

I love Maria Bamford, and I was really excited to discover she had a new book out! While this book is absolutely laugh-out-loud funny, Maria also discusses a number of heavier topics like mental health, eating disorders, and struggling to find a place in her industry. She does it in such an honest, open, and frank way that even when she is writing about something serious, it is still humorous. I love her kind of chaotic, unique brand of story-telling.
I will definitely be recommending this to many readers. I hope she is narrating the audiobook herself!

In 𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘐’𝘭𝘭 𝘑𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘊𝘶𝘭𝘵, comedian and actress Maria Bamford shares the story of her life, career in show business, and mental health journey via the various social groups and self-help communities she’s belonged to over the years. Bamford tells you upfront: 1) this memoir is her first book, 2) it is meant to be comedic and she is not an expert on the topics she discusses in it, and 3) it does not have the “trauma, healing, and victory” trajectory typical of the genre. It is a much-appreciated disclaimer, because while I can see this book being an excellent read for those who are big fans of her stand-up or relate to her personal experiences, I found my interest waning over time. At its best, the book is honest and amusing, but there is also a good deal of frenzy and disorderliness in her writing style that made my attention wander. The book wasn’t for me, but I’m glad it exists for her fans and for those will benefit from reading her health discussions. 3.5 stars rounded up.

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. My review was posted on August 13, 2023 to https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5560476376.

An honest portrait of mental health and a family history from the always hilarious Maria Bamford.

Five stars and all of the thumbs up.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

Bamford opens up (even more!) about her struggles with mental health in this memoir that is just what you’d expect from her. If you know and love Bamford’s unique style of humor, you will find much to laugh about in Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult. With the skill fans have come to appreciate, she manages to explain the immense difficulties of living with mental illness in a way that is accessible, real, raw, funny and heartbreaking all at the same time. I think this memoir shows how someone who appears to be doing so well professionally can truly be drowning and to never judge someone’s life from how it appears in public. Bamford has never made a secret of her diagnoses but one may think that if she’s able to make such great content about it, she must have somehow “beaten” it, but mental illness is a lifelong struggle. After reading this, I will certainly be re-watching Lady Dynamite with new eyes, knowing what she soldiered through to create that show for us.

I was unfamiliar with Maria Bamford before this book but I sure feel like I know her now! This is memoir that is both funny and honest which is rarer than you"d think. I liked how she learned more about herself and how she thought and coped and took us along for the ride. It also seemed very sincere and honest which sometimes is not the impression I get from memoirists, especially if they are somewhat famous.

I enjoy Maria's standup and had the pleasure of meeting her a few years ago. Reading her book is a bit of a different experience-- I recommend reading it in "her voice." It's a little messy, but offers some great insights into mental health and grief, with humor!

This book was all over the place, but in a good way. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like it. And did I mention it’s also hilarious? Of course, there are also parts that are poignant and sad. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

So! Many! Exclamation! Marks! That’s how comedian Maria Bamford relates her many hilarious and disturbing stories—with the same kind of mania she likely experiences on a daily basis. Hilarious: That time she shilled for Target then realized they’re the worst and outed them in print. Disturbing: The facts that she has obsessive thoughts about cutting off women’s breasts and she accidentally killed her pet pug. I tore through this memoir, which is all about OCD, bipolar disorder, and depression (but somehow still funny?) and one woman’s attempt to cope by joining ALL the “cults” of ALL the twelve-step programs. Alcoholics Anonymous, Debtors Anonymous, Sex Addicts Anonymous; been there, done that. Psych ward, three times? Check. And yet, killing it on stage and on Netflix (and now in book form)? Yep, yep, and yep. This is the fascinating life of Maria Bamford. Thanks to the publisher for an ARC!

This autobiography will be released on September 5, 2023. Gallery Books provided an early galley for review.

I have heard it said that many comedians view themselves and/or the world as "broken" or "damagaged". They use comedy as a coping mechanism, a form of therapy. Laughter is the best medicine.

I have seen Maria's stand-up on cable. Her voices are fantastic, and her comedy utilizes them and facial expressions to the full extent. Her rhythms are different from most comedians as well. Having familiarity with all of this is beneficial when reading her book as her written delivery is similar to her stand-up delivery. I found I enjoyed her writing more when I could read it "in her voice". If she narrates the audiobook version, I think that will be an even better experience.

Absolutely no one is as funny and sincere as Maria Bamford, and even if you aren't already familiar with her comedy career (shows, Lady Dynamite, etc), this book is really readable, sharp, and again, really funny. Bamford writes movingly about living with mental illness (specifically, OCD/intrusive thoughts/ruminations/guilt/etc) including hospitalizations, costs of care/barriers of access, and her own privilege. In fact, I think that's something she does particularly well, especially in the realm of celebrity memoirs--she really gives numbers and context for how money does (and sometimes, doesn't) offers more (or at least, different) access to care, and how inherently unfair and unsustainable that really is. Some of the material will be familiar to you if you're a fan of her stand-up/et, but it doesn't feel recycled or "easy," just a revisit of her actual life/material she's comfortable with. Totally worth the read whether or not you're a fan, and especially could work well if you want to recommend a book that may help humanize or destigmatize mental health conditions, especially ones like OCD that are so categorically misunderstood in traditional media.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Gallery Books for an advance copy of this memoir about dealing with mental issues, all while making a career in slightly skewed world of entertainment and comedy.

There might be a thin line between love and hate, but I think there is a micron thick line between comedy and many mental issues. Depressed people aren't supposed to laugh, but many of my favorite comedians have discussed their issues with depression and other issues. One of the funniest people I know personally is also one of the saddest people I know, though thankfully they are getting better. Heck if I didn't have self-deprecating jokes, I might actually have to people about my problems. Dylan once sang, "It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry", which I never understood. Laughing is easy. People laugh in self-loathing, laugh because other people are doing better than we are, laugh while thinking of self-harm. A train might have a lonesome whistle, ugly laughing and crying comes real easy. What is tough, what take the strength of a locomotive, no matter how out of control, is to admit that one is not doing well. And that is a strength that Maria Bamford has, and Bamford shows this in her book Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere. Bamford discusses her life, loves, lapses and losses, all while making a career in an industry not known for its mental stability, or understanding.

Maria Bamford has always had problems. As a child Bamford dealt with OCD, food issues, trust issues, a family that seemed distant, and way to many doubts and inner voices to get into. However with all this Bamford has still had a very successful career in both comedy and on television. Unfortunately with fame, comes lots of problems, money, self doubt, more voices and vices. Bamford is not shy about talking about her problems right from the beginning, nor is she shy about sharing anything. Bamford discusses the money she was paid for her book, working with editors, problems with her husband. Bamford talk about the time her inner voice became too much, and she needed a rest, and was able to talk to famed comedian Jonathan Winters who gave her some short but perfect advice. Plus Bamford discusses her addiction to self help books, groups, advice, plans and more. This is something that I really related with and was kind of like oh yeah, them, oh I remember that. Oh that was a big seller. The honesty is not only refreshing but, ultimately hopeful.

The book hits in a lot of different ways. One minutes one is gasping in oh my God I can't believe that happened, to hyperventilating in laughter again with I can't believe that happened. The book is extremely personal, very funny, and sad and hopeful and lots of other emotions. The worst is knowing that none of this is her fault, it's not anyone's fault, we were just born this way. The acceptance that Bamford might always feel this way is a weight, but in looking at all that Bamford has achieved, well it's obvious she turned what could have been a problem into a real strength. Which is a great message. The writing is very good, clear and with a stong voice, of a person who has seen some stuff, done some stuff, and wants to share what that stuff taught Bamford. One of the funniest, most painful and yet inspiring memoirs I have read in awhile.

I remember watching Maria Bamford years and years ago on an HBO special, laughing hysterically and than seeing her later on a special with Patton Oswalt talking about some of ther problems, and laughing along, but in a different way. It truly is amazing all that Bamford has accomplished, and I can't wait to read more by Bamford.

Honestly, I was not sure what to expect from the book but was very pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the writing style as well as the story itself.

Chaotic, frenetic, hilarious, unsparingly honest, empathetic, raw and thought-provoking, reading Maria Bamford's memoir feels a lot like sitting in the audience for one of her inimitable standup performances; I found myself wanting to cry and then only a few sentences later laughing so hard I drooled. Structured as sort of a handbook on cults, the first section explores the "cult of family" by diving into Maria's childhood/adolescence and family life, shedding light on some of the dynamics and experiences that helped shape the adult she became. Section two talks about the "cult of fame", the early years of her career in entertainment and the toll it took on her mental and physical health. Section three, the "cult of mental health care", talks about the breakdowns that led to a series of hospitalizations, the life she's built for herself since then, and the work it takes to maintain that life while keeping her mental health as stable as possible. It's a fascinating deep dive into the challenges of being what I like of think of as "neurospicy" in a culture/society that doesn't offer a lot of meaningful support. I've been a big fan of Maria Bamford for years, and reading this book brought me to a whole new level of respect and appreciation for her work and for her as a person. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy, and thanks to Maria Bamford for being who she is and sharing her experiences and insights.

Review: Overall I enjoyed this read and sympathize with the struggles the author has been through. Her frankness is refreshing. Some parts were great, and some felt like filler, and over all the whole book felt oddly pieced together, but still worth the read.
Recommended For: Anyone who struggles with mental illness or has a loved one who does.

Realy enjoyed Maria Branford’s story.Just like in her standup comedy shows she’s funny interesting unique.A frenetic unique memoir#netgalley #gallerybooks

If you know and love Maria Bamford, you know the title of her book, "Sure, I'll Join Your Cult," comes from one of her brilliant bits. This searing, heart-breaking, brave and hopeful book of the same name is Maria's story of her life with mental illness. Maria is brutally honest in sharing her story and the reality is, in doing do, lives will be saved. Laced with some of her routines that have shown her to be the best comedian in the business, the book is a no-holds barred trip into mental illness and how Maria has learned to live with it. It's not been an easy road but each page holds value. Also, if you are familiar with her impressions of her mother, Marilyn, like me you'll be unable to read anything attributed to Marilyn without hearing it in Maria's voice, This is an important and funny read. It will make a difference. Thank you to #NetGalley and #GalleryBooks for the opportunity to read an advance copy of "Sure, I'll Join Your Cult."

If it is on YouTube and comes up in a search on Maria Bamford's name, I've probably watched it. I enjoy her offbeat comedy and hope I get to see her perform in person one day. When I saw she wrote a memoir about her journey with mental illness, I knew I would read it.

This book isn't so much about cults as it is her experiences with various 12-step programs. I appreciated her use of icons throughout the book to alert the reader to various topics, including the presence of recycled material from her comedy routines. ♻️

I would urge anyone who plans to read this book to be aware of the content warnings. As long as you can handle content such as eating disorders, the death of a parent, bipolar disorder, and the death of a pet, you might find her book honest, refreshing, enlightening, and worth the read. I know I did!

Thank you to NetGalley for a digital copy of this book in return for my honest review.

Maria Bamford showcases her life and her mental health issues in this brutally honest, hilarious memoir. I am generally skeptical of any and all "true stories" from famous people, but Bamford makes it hard to doubt her sincerity. At one point, she literally lays out her finances for the world to see, which I found absolutely fascinating. If you have ever wanted to know, in detail, how a comedian affords the LA lifestyle, this is the book for you.

The "cults" she joins tend to be more self-help-y and less the disturbing, religious, polygamist type. She won't join just any cult, really, because her sister has one and she's not in it! Some of my favorite sections of the book were the one about her pugs (which she considers the closest Earthly thing to gods, and I couldn't agree more), the section where she describes a "typical" day with her partner, Scott, and the last bit, where she kind of quickly and brutally tells the reader how NOT to talk to a mentally ill person in the middle of an episode. She details an unhinged list of legitimate and bizarre places to go for help; Banford wants people to get help, to be as well as possible, and she recognizes how hard that is under our current system.

This memoir helped me better understand the difficulty of living with mental illness and emphasizes how important it is to both advocate for yourself, and to find people who love you to advocate for you. Bamford's voice is so warm and funny: she comes across as someone who truly cares, someone who wants what is best for everyone.

I give Sure, I'll Join Your Cult 10/10 stars and recommend it to anyone who likes to laugh and who wants a better understanding of how to deal with life when your brain is not braining.

I really like Maria Bamford, and maybe this would have been better on audiobook; but this was a bit of a mess. Hard to follow. Made me kinda anxious.