Funnymen take on love in ‘Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me’

By Taryn Lentes, Staff Writer

March 26, 2008 | 8 a.m.

Break-up book “Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me” features famous comedians, actors and writers offering up wisdom about love and all that comes along with it, including the inevitable torture of being dumped.

“Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me” is not your mother’s self-help book. In fact, it isn’t really much of a self-help book at all, though its chapters are laid out as 46 lessons, each suggesting some nugget of wisdom relating to the less pleasant side of love and relationships.

"Things I’ve Learned" is, in fact, more of a “Chicken Soup for the Soul” for those who prefer their relationship insights to come with a healthy dose of profanity, comic book-like illustrations and humorous sexual anecdotes. "Things I’ve Learned" certainly delivers on all three counts and accomplishes this success by taking advantage of a few simple universal truths: Everyone will, at one point or another, get dumped, and it will be, in retrospect, ripe with comedic material. Even if the one who was dumped never comes around to this view, there are plenty of others who will be more than willing to point out the humor. "Things I’ve Learned" capitalizes on this humor to create an easy-to-read, hilarious and yet highly relatable collection of essays.

"Things I’ve Learned" was edited by Ben Karlin, and as a former editor of The Onion and a producer on both "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," Karlin is well aware of how to make people laugh. The book is his first venture into publishing and is a collection of essays from his friends and colleagues, as well as one he penned himself. "Things I’ve Learned" covers just about every type of romantic misadventure one can imagine in a surprisingly entertaining manner, considering the sometimes sensitive subject matter.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book is seeing how different authors approach the subject of heartbreak from either a purely comedic standpoint or a place of real emotion. However, the latter seems to be the case for the majority of the writers featured.

The topics featured in the essays include first loves, death of beloved pets, coming to terms with being gay and every end of a relationship scenario a person could imagine, and yet the essays never become boring, preachy or so serious that they cease to be funny. One reason things stay interesting is the varying formats for different chapters, such as traditional essays, phone transcripts, song lyrics and even short comics. Another reason is simply the material covered and the humorous chapter titles applied to those topics.

The introduction by Nick Hornby, author of "High Fidelity" and "About A Boy," describes the blissful contentment that comes from receiving incredibly boring e-mails from his wife concerning grocery lists after years of receiving explicative-laced subject lines in communications from his crazy ex-girlfriends. The opening chapter, “Sex Is the Most Stressful Thing in the History of the Universe,” by "Futurama" writer Dan Vebber, chronicles with surprising honesty and gut-busting hilarity the disastrous attempts he made to lose his virginity.

David Wain (Comedy Central's "Stella") presents “Persistence Is For Suckers,” a phone transcript that should seem incredibly familiar to anyone who has ever tried to maintain a relationship with someone almost exclusively through text messages and the occasional voicemail. Stephen Colbert’s contribution, “The Heart is a Choking Hazard,” is heavily “edited” by his wife, leaving the reader to fill in the blanks of his exploits.

This is only a small sampling of the outlandish titles and topics of chapters in "Things I’ve Learned," but aside from the hilarity of the subject matter and the author’s style of presenting it, the biggest thing the book has going for it is its readability for both male and female readers. Women might just find they get a small window into the male psyche as they read hilarious thought processes that the men put into their break-ups, while men are sure to have experienced several of the situations presented. It helps that the essays really are genuinely funny and even occasionally moving. This adds an endearing quality to a book that is, in all actuality, mostly made up of swear words and sex jokes.

“Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me” is a funny, quick read that gives readers just enough emotional honesty to make it even funnier. It seems that in order to get a man to open up about his feelings, all it takes is permission to be honest, swear a lot, add illustrations when necessary and take a humorous angle to avoid all that mushy stuff.

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